'Chicken Little' lays golden egg at box office
Posted on: Sunday, 13 November 2005, 14:26 CST
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Chicken Little" ruled the coop at the North American box office for a second weekend, earning almost as much as the three major new releases combined, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.
Walt Disney Co.'s first home-grown computer-animated cartoon sold about $32 million worth of tickets in the three days beginning Friday, followed by the sci-fi adventure "Zathura" with $14 million, the thriller "Derailed" with $12.8 million, and rapper 50 Cent's gritty urban drama "Get Rich or Die Tryin"' with $12.5 million.
The top 10 films contained one other new entry, the period adaptation "Pride & Prejudice," which opened at No. 10 with $2.8 million from its limited release run.
"Chicken Little" lost just 20 percent of its audience from its bigger-than-expected launch the prior weekend, and its 10-day total rose to $80.8 million. Usually, big movies can expect to drop about 50 percent in their second weekend, although family movies often hold up better.
Disney said it hoped the movie will have banked about $90 million by the time the eagerly anticipated "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" sucks in every youngster next Friday.
"Chicken Little" revolves around the age-old tale of a chicken that thinks the sky is falling. In Disney's adaptation, no one believes the chicken (voiced by Zach Braff, star of the NBC sitcom "Scrubs") when he warns of a greater peril.
The three major newcomers mostly opened within their studios' expectations, although their ticket sales were relatively modest.
SOLID OPENING
"Zathura," a $65 million sci-fi adventure sharing the same roots as the 1995 movie "Jumanji, stars Tim Robbins and is directed by Jon Favreau. Its $14 million opening was termed as "solid," by its distributor, Columbia Pictures. The Sony Corp.-owned studio said families comprised 71 percent of the audience, while three-quarters of moviegoers polled said they would definitely recommend it.
"Derailed," a psychological thriller starring Jennifer Aniston and British actor Clive Owen, beat industry expectations by more than $2 million, said its distributor, the Weinstein Co. Fans of the former TV Sitcom "Friends" actress Aniston turned out in force, with women accounting for about 60 percent of the audience, the company added.
The film, which sources said cost about $22 million to make, marks the first major release from the new studio set up by former Miramax Films co-chairmen Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who recently ended their difficult relationship with Disney.
"Get Rich or Die Trying," which stars Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson in a drama loosely based on his criminal past, got a two-day head start on the other new films by opening Wednesday, taking its total to $18.2 million.
Its distributor, Paramount Pictures, had hoped the early start would spread out attendance and help prevent violence, but a man was shot to death Wednesday in the lobby of a Pittsburgh theater while the film was playing.
Although the film was directed by Irishman Jim Sheridan, famed for such weighty fare as "My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father," his imprimatur did little to widen its reach beyond young rap fans, according to midweek polling conducted by the Viacom Inc.-owned studio. Data revealed that three-quarters of moviegoers were black, and their ages were concentrated in the 18-24 range.
"Pride & Prejudice," starring English actress Keira Knightley ("Domino") in an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, was released by Focus Features, a unit of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal. It was playing in just 215 theaters, far fewer than its bigger rivals, such as "Chicken Little" with 3,658 theaters and "Get Rich" with 1,652.
Source: REUTERS
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds