The Simpsons rule
2007-07-30 09:14
Los Angeles - As Bart Simpson would
exclaim, "Ay Carumba!"
The proud underachiever and his family took the North
American box office by storm on Sunday as The Simpsons Movie sold $71.85m worth of tickets during its first weekend,
according to estimates issued by distributor 20th Century Fox.
The animated film, which cost about $75m to make,
marks the big screen debut of the beloved cartoon characters,
who will begin their 19th season on television in the fall.
Fox, a unit of News Corp, had expected the movie to open
in the $40m range, said Chris Aronson, the studio's
senior vice president of distribution.
The movie was also the top choice internationally, Fox
said. Preliminary figures showed it earned about $100m
from 71 territories.
Last weekend's North American champion, the Adam Sandler
comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, slipped to a
distant No 2 with $19.1m.
The film was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal Inc.