9/11 film ranks third at US box office

[KiwiCoromandel]

Most US moviegoers opted for comedy and dance after a week dominated by news of thwarted terror plots and Middle East bloodshed but World Trade Center, Oliver Stone's new film about the September 11 attacks, managed a No 3 finish at the box office.

Arriving in theaters just ahead of the fifth anniversary of the deadliest attacks ever on US soil, Hollywood's first big-budget film about the 9/11 calamity in New York has grossed $26.8 million since opening last Wednesday, according to studio estimates.

The better-than-expected tally included $19 million in weekend tickets sales alone, landing World Trade Center in third place at the North American box office for the Friday-through-Sunday period.

Will Ferrell's race car comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, from Sony Pictures Entertainment, returned to the top of the box office with $23 million in its second weekend, raising its cumulative total to $91.2 million. The Walt Disney's new dance film Step Up opened at No 2 with ticket sales of $21.1 million. The Stone-directed World Trade Center stars Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena, who played the locksmith in Crash, as two Port Authority policemen buried alive in the rubble of the World Trade Centre after hijackers crashed airliners into the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001.

The $65 million film, released by Viacom Inc-owned Paramount Pictures, has received mostly favorable reviews, as did the low-budget 9/11 movie "United 93," which came out in April and went on to gross $31.5 million.

Industry experts said both films, while hardly blockbusters by Hollywood standards, had to be seen as commercial successes given the nature of their subject matter.

"This shows that five years on, this story is ready to be told on the big screen," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking service Exhibitor Relations Co.

But with headlines in recent days about the Lebanese conflict and authorities thwarting an international plot to blow up commercial jetliners over the Atlantic, most moviegoers went for lighter fare like Talladega Nights and Step Up.

Paramount executives said it was hard to tell whether recent news about the plot to blow up airliners frightened moviegoers away from "World Trade Center" or heightened interest in the movie.

But studio distribution head Jim Tharp said exit polls showed the film benefited from positive word-of-mouth – 91 per cent of viewers rated it "excellent" or "very good" and more than 80 per cent said they would recommend it to others.

The PG-13 film also drew a decidedly older-skewing crowd, with 65 per cent of its audience over the age of 25, he said.

Last week's No 2 film, Paramount's computer-animated feature Barnyard, slipped to fourth place in its second weekend with a three-day gross of $10.1 million.

The biggest movie of the year so far, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, fell from third place to No 6 with $7.2 million, taking its six-week haul to $392.4 million. Disney put its worldwide total so far, including domestic business, at $855 million.

The No 5 spot in North America this weekend went to the Weinstein Co.'s horror flick Pulse, which opened with $8.5 million, while the only other new wide-release movie, Sony's superhero spoof Zoom, starring Tim Allen, landed at No 7 with a disappointing tally of $4.6 million.

source:reuters