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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘Dukes’ roars to No. 1 at box office

Alicia Chang Associated Press

The good ol’ boys of “The Dukes of Hazzard” rode to the top of the weekend box office.

The big-screen remake of the ‘80s TV series, starring Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott as the mischievous Duke cousins and Jessica Simpson as short-shorts-wearing cousin Daisy, rounded up $30.6 million in its first three days of release, according to studio estimates.

Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn’s “The Wedding Crashers” slipped back to No. 2 with $16.5 million. Johnny Depp’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” dropped to third with $10.6 million.

“Dukes” weathered largely nasty reviews with a savvy marketing campaign. Its stars appeared on GQ magazine covers two months in a row, and Simpson drew attention with a sexy video for her cover of “These Boots are Made for Walkin’.”

The little big film of the summer, “March of the Penguins,” was No. 6 after taking in $6.9 million over the weekend for a cumulative total of $26.2 million.

It became the second highest-grossing nonconcert and non-IMAX documentary ever, surpassing Michael Moore’s “Bowling For Columbine,” which had $21.6 million, but still far from Moore’s $119 million “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

After a two-week downturn, the box office saw a slight uptick. The top 12 movies grossed $102.5 million, up about 5 percent from the same weekend last year.