By Andrew Gans
05 Dec 2005

Wilson Jermaine Heredia in "Rent".
photo by © 2005 Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC.

Although the long-awaited film of Jonathan Larson's Rent was the sixth highest-grossing film of the Dec. 2-4 weekend, its box-office take fell by more than 50 percent compared to the previous week.

For the weekend past, the Chris Columbus-directed motion picture brought in $4.6 million, according to Variety. The previous weekend — its first weekend in release — "Rent" took in $10.7 million in theatres across the country. The change marks a 57% decrease in sales.

"Rent" hit movie theatres across the country Nov. 23, earning $5.3 million in its first day of release. To date, the movie has grossed $23.9 million.

The highest grossing film of the weekend past was, for the third consecutive week, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Others in the top ten included "Aeon Flux," "Walk the Line," "Yours, Mine and Ours," "Just Friends," "Pride & Prejudice," "Rent," "Chicken Little," "Derailed" and "In the Mix."

"Rent," which features a screenplay by director Columbus and Stephen Chbosky, reunites most of the original Broadway cast, including Anthony Rapp (as Mark Cohen), Adam Pascal (as Roger Davis), Wilson Jermaine Heredia (as Angel Schunard), Jesse L. Martin (as Thomas B. "Thom" Collins), Idina Menzel (as Maureen Johnson) and Taye Diggs (as Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III). Newcomers to the company include film actress Rosario Dawson as Mimi with Tracie Thoms as Joanne Jefferson. (The roles of Mimi and Joanne were created on Broadway by, respectively, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Fredi Walker.)

Rent updates Puccini's La Boheme to the East Village near the end of the millennium, with artists and lovers struggling to connect in a world that is chaotic, shallow and tinged with disease. The late Larson wrote Rent's book, music and lyrics. The 1996 Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning musical continues at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City.

To read more about Rent's decade-long journey to the screen Click Here. To read an interview with "Rent" director Chris Columbus, Click Here.

To view the "Rent" site, visit Click Here.