Clooney film bombs at box office
2008-04-07 11:46
Los Angeles - George Clooney
suffered a bruising tackle at the North American box office on
Sunday as his new football comedy Leatherheads failed to
dislodge the gambling drama 21 from the top spot.
Leatherheads kicked off its disappointing run at No 2
with $13.5m for the three days beginning on Friday, said
its distributor, Universal Pictures.
21 logged a second weekend at No 1 with three-day sales
of $15.1m, enjoying a stronger-than-expected hold, said
Columbia Pictures.
Some rival studios thought Universal's estimate was too
generous, by upward of $1m, placing Leatherheads at
No 3 below the new Jodie Foster family adventure Nim's
Island, which reported $13.3m.
Universal, a unit of General Electric Co, had hoped
Leatherheads would open in the mid-teen millions range.
But
it was stymied by poor reviews and a storyline that appealed to
older moviegoers, a demographic that does not rush out on
opening weekend.
More than half of the audience was aged 40 and
older, the studio said. The movie cost about $58m to
make.
Badly written script
Clooney, 46, directed and starred in Leatherheads, a
farce set in the early days of American professional football.
He claims he also rewrote much of the script but his request
for credit was denied by the Writers Guild of America.
Clooney
resigned from the guild as a voting member in protest.
Critics have savaged the film, particularly the script.
According to Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com), a
website that aggregates reviews, only 36% of top
critics liked the film.
After 10 days, 21 has earned $46.5m, and should
end up in the $70m range, said Columbia, a unit of Sony
Corp.
It cost about $35m to make.
Nim's Island, released by News Corp's 20th Century Fox,
met the studio's expectations.
The $37m, based on Wendy
Orr's 2002 novel, stars Abigail Breslin as a girl who lives on
a remote volcanic paradise.
- Reuters