Not since Titanic (which coincidentally reached a landmark in box office history by crossing the 600 million US mark in the US alone) have we seen box office actually increase from a previous weekend. There's Something About Mary, yet another Fox movie (Rupert has some geniuses working for him) triumph, has increased 14% from last weekend. Fox added more theatres to its run, hence making it likely that the movie would have potentially more people going. But the amazing thing is, the per screen average also INCREASED. This movie could end up making more money than Armageddon, and who knows, maybe even Saving Private Ryan. Meanwhile, Saving Private Ryan dropped only 18% this weekend. It stands at 155 million dollars so far. It should be able to just make it to 200 million dollars. Anyway, the box office guru knows more, and the analysis he has is far superior. SO here goes.

Straight into the box office gurus summary of the estimates:

(figures in brackets are cumulative totals)

1 Blade $11,100,000 ($34,908,000)

2 There's Something About Mary $8,800,000 ($116,658,000)

3 Saving Private Ryan $8,300,000 ($155,497,000)

4 54 $6,600,000

5 Why Do Fools Fall in Love? $4,200,000

6 Ever After 4,000,000 ($48,770,000)

7 Snake Eyes 3,700,000 (46,165,000)

8 How Stella Got Her Groove Back $3,600,000 ($27,937,000)

9 Dance With Me $3,000,000 ($9,361,000)

10 Dead Man on Campus $2,900,000 ($9,727,000)

10 The Parent Trap $2,900,000 ($56,182,000)

THIS WEEKEND The final weekend of summer saw the same three movies top the charts, although in a slightly different order. Overall, holdovers posted strong sales while newcomers were greeted with moderate results. Meanwhile, Titanic crossed the $600 million hurdle on Thursday and continued to pull in sizable crowds days before its release on home video.

New Line's vampire action film Blade stayed a cut above the competition with a sharp $11.1M, according to estimates, in its second frame keeping it ahead of all other films at the box office. Its decline of 35% was remarkable considering the Wesley Snipes film, based on the comic book hero, played to a sci-fi crowd that generally sees a film during its first weekend. The second weekend drop was much lower than those of other recent films like The X Files (-56%), Starship Troopers (-55%), and New Line's previous August hits Spawn (-58%) and Mortal Kombat (-57%). With a sturdy $34.9M in its first ten days, Blade is running about even with 1995's hit action-horror film Species which opened similarly with $17.2M, collected $34.5M in its first ten days, and finished off with $60.1M. New Line should end up seeing comparable results from Blade although the vampire pic will not benefit from as many weeks of summer play as Species which was released in early July.

Fox won big over the weekend as the unstoppable comedy There's Something About Mary added 215 more theaters and actually saw an increase of 14% over last weekend's gross to push it up to second place. Despite the increase in playdates, the film's per theater average of $3,665 was also higher than last weekend's $3,518. Now in its seventh weekend, Mary took in an estimated $8.8M boosting its total to a charming $116.7M. Achieving its highest chart position to date, the Farrelly Brothers gross-out film will try to use its momentum to finally reach a first place finish next weekend. Standing in its way will be holdovers Blade and Saving Private Ryan and newcomer Knock Off starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Nevertheless, Mary is looking more and more like that leggy picture from the summer of 1990, Ghost. In its seventh weekend, the Demi Moore-Patrick Swayze romance grossed $7.5M boosting its total to $111.5M. Take out the $4M from Mary's midweek opening and the two films are about even over the 45-day period of release with Mary having a stronger seventh weekend gross. Ghost went on to collect $217.6M. With few new comedies hitting theaters over the next several weeks, Mary should power its way to a much higher cumulative total.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks placed third over the weekend with their blockbuster Saving Private Ryan which earned an estimated $8.3M pushing its cume to $155.5M. Down only 18%, the war drama passed the $150M mark on Saturday, its 37th day of combat. Ryan should have no problem reaching $190M, and could very well conquer $200M.

Two new releases opened in fourth and fifth places that took moviegoers for a trip back in time. Miramax's disco drama 54 opened its doors to the tune of $6.6M, according to estimates. Starring Ryan Philippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell, and Mike Myers, 54 debuted in 1,859 clubs and averaged $3,550 per nightspot. The film chronicled the lavish nights of the infamous discotheque on Manhattan's West 54th Street in the late 1970s. Mixed reviews and a small 5% increase in Saturday sales could slow this disco ball down in the coming weeks. By comparison, New Line's Boogie Nights, which also dealt with the same decadent era, opened wide in half the number of theaters and grossed $4.7M last October with a much more sinful $5,162 average.

The Warner Bros. picture Why Do Fools Fall In Love? rounded out the top five with an estimated $4.2M in ticket sales in its debut weekend. Playing in 1,369 cinemas, Fools averaged a mediocre $3,068 per site. Unfortunately for the studio, the starpower of Halle Berry, Vivica A. Fox, and Lela Rochon was not enough to attract a healthy opening.

Taking sixth place was a summer entry that quietly has become a breakout hit. Fox's Cinderella update Ever After picked up an estimated $4M in its fifth weekend of release pushing its cume to a solid $48.8M. Down only 13%, the Drew Barrymore fairy tale has displayed strong legs throughout its entire run at the box office and is headed for at least $70M.

Snake Eyes from Paramount dipped just 27% to finish seventh with an estimated $3.7M. Angela Bassett's How Stella Got Her Groove Back took eighth with an estimated $3.6M, and Sony's Dance With Me was off by one-third in its sophomore session taking in $3M, according to estimates. Two films tied for tenth place as Dead Man on Campus and The Parent Trap both grossed an estimated $2.9M over the Friday-to-Sunday period.

Below the top ten, Armageddon soared to $188.5M, Halloween : H20 hit $50M, and The Mask of Zorro reached $85M.

Another historic milestone was achieved on Thursday, August 27th, as Titanic sailed across the $600 million mark in domestic ticket sales. This weekend, the James Cameron epic collected an estimated $385,000 elevating its record-shattering cume to $600.4M making it the only film ever to reach that level. Still playing in 502 theaters, Titanic is preparing to invade the home video market on Tuesday where it is sure to break even more records as retailers brace themselves for a buying frenzy. The online video superstore Reel.com, selling the video for only $9.99, is prepared to take a loss on each sale in hopes of introducing a flood of new customers to a new way of buying videos. Retailers like Blockbuster Video and Best Buy are having midnight sales at many of their stores on Monday night for customers who just can't wait to own the movie.