''Four Brothers'' tops the weekend box office

It comes out to about $5 million per brother: Director John Singleton’s gritty drama Four Brothers reached the top of the box office chart this weekend with a debut gross of $20.7 million, according to studio estimates. The film’s diverse cast, including Mark Wahlberg and Outkast singer Andre Benjamin, certainly added to its appeal, along with the general lack of urban-interest films this summer.

Another new entry, Kate Hudson’s thriller The Skeleton Key, premiered in second place with $15.8 million, followed by last week’s top two films: The Dukes of Hazzard, which plummeted 58 percent to $13 million in its second week, and Wedding Crashers, which slipped only 25 percent to $12 million, bringing its total to a fantastic $164.1 million.

Completing the top five was Rob Schneider’s goofy comedy sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, which opened with $9.4 million. Usually, sequels perform better in their opening weekends than their predecessors. But Deuce 2’s tally fell short of the $12.2 million Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo earned in its first weekend in 1999. Apparently this male ho has past his prime.

• By Dave Karger