Corpses littered the weekend box office in North America
UPDATE - "Freddy Vs. Jason" thrills U.S. moviegoers
Sunday August 17, 3:59 pm ET
By Dean Goodman
(Recasts, adds byline)
LOS ANGELES, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Corpses littered the weekend box office in North America, but this time they weren't the remains of overhyped, costly flops.
Instead, they belonged to hapless victims in the top three movies, led by teen horror "Freddy Vs. Jason," which shocked the industry with a surprisingly strong $36.4 million opening.
Going into the weekend, pundits had forecast a three-day bow in the $20 million range. The film, in which two of Hollywood's most infamous villains join forces to slaughter suburban kids, cost about $30 million to make. It was released by New Line Cinema, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc (NYSE:AOL - News).
Another new film with its fair share of blood-letting, the Kevin Costner Western "Open Range" opened at No. 3 with a solid $14.1 million. The film, which Costner also directed and produced, reportedly cost a little over $20 million to make. It was distributed by Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS - News), which paid $10 million for North American and some international rights.
In between was last weekend's champion, the cop action movie "S.W.A.T." The film earned $18.6 million, taking its 10-day haul to $70.1 million. It was released by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp (Tokyo:6758.T - News; NYSE:SNE - News).
Rounding out the top-five were two comedies vying for the same young women. Disney's "Freaky Friday," starring Jamie Lee Curtis, slipped two places to No. 4 with $13.1 million in its second weekend; the 12-day total for the critically acclaimed role-reversal film rose to $57.9 million.
New entrant "Uptown Girls," starring Brittany Murphy as a penniless heiress hired as a nanny for a precocious youngster played by Dakota Fanning, was No. 5 with $11.2 million -- a promising start for a film that cost less than $20 million. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc (NYSE:MGM - News).
BOX OFFICE CLIMBS
With a somewhat lethargic summer box office nearing an end, weekend ticket sales for the top-12 movies totaled about $132 million, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The tally represents a 3.6 percent increase over last weekend, and a 33.2 percent surge from the year-ago period, when "XXX" was tops for a second round with $22 million.
"Freddy Vs. Jason," which has been in development since 1994, stars series veteran Robert Englund and newcomer Ken Kirzinger as the bad guys from two creaky horror franchises: respectively, Freddy Krueger of "Nightmare on Elm Street" and Jason Voorhees of "Friday the 13th."
"The core fans have been waiting (almost) 10 years for us to get our act together and make this thing," said David Tuckerman, president of domestic theatrical distribution at New Line.
With the exception of hit British zombie thriller "28 Days" horror films have been fairly rare this year, possibly contributing to pent-up demand, he added.
The audience was mostly aged under 25, and over 70 percent of those polled in exit surveys said they would definitely recommend the film, New Line said.
"Open Range," a well reviewed morality tale also starring Robert Duvall and Annette Bening, played to an older crowd, with 80 percent of viewers aged over 25, said Disney. "Open Range" opened just a few million dollars short of actor-director Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," which won several Oscars in 1993.
One other new release opened in theaters this weekend, not that many people noticed. The skateboarding comedy "Grind" opened at No. 12 with just $2.6 million. It was released by AOL Time Warner's Warner Bros. Pictures unit.
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