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Enchanted charms box-office
26/11/2007 09:46 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Audiences fell under the spell of Enchanted, a fairy-tale romance that debuted as the No 1 movie and led Hollywood out of its recent box-office doldrums with solid business over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Starring Amy Adams as a cartoon princess exiled to real-world Manhattan by her fiance's wicked stepmother (Susan Sarandon), Disney's Enchanted took in $35.3m over the weekend and $50.05m since debuting on Wednesday, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
Sony Screen Gems' family-reunion holiday tale This Christmas, whose ensemble cast includes Delroy Lindo, Regina King, Mekhi Phifer and Idris Elba, opened at No 2 with $18.6m for the weekend and $27.1m since Wednesday.
Hollywood had been in a box-office funk this fall, but the two movies paced the industry to a healthy Thanksgiving, with the top-12 movies pulling in $218.1m from Wednesday to Sunday, up 6 percent from the holiday period last year.
"That's good for an industry that's been in a downtrend for almost two months," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "Thanksgiving sets the tone for the rest of the year and the holiday season in general. This was a key weekend, and it delivered."
Enchanted had the second-best five-day Thanksgiving debut ever, behind the $80.1m haul of Disney's Toy Story 2.
Top-grossing movie debuts
Disney released all five of the top-grossing movie debuts over Thanksgiving, with Unbreakable, A Bug's Life and 101 Dalmatians trailing Toy Story 2 and Enchanted.
"It's a really good place to launch a movie," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.
"When you get a movie as strong and well-playing as this, it bodes well for us right through the Christmas holiday."
Among other new wide releases, 20th Century Fox's video-game adaptation Hitman debuted at No 4 with $13m over the weekend and $21m since Wednesday.
The movie follows the exploits of a genetically engineered assassin (Timothy Olyphant).
The Warner Bros. drama August Rush opened in seventh-place with $9.4m for the weekend and $13.3m since Wednesday.
August Rush stars Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Robin Williams in the tale of an orphaned musical prodigy seeking his parents.
Stephen King
The Stephen King adaptation The Mist, a fright flick distributed by MGM for the Weinstein Co's Dimension Films banner, premiered in ninth-place with $9.1m for the weekend and $13m since Wednesday.
The third King adaptation from director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile), The Mist stars Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher and Toby Jones among residents trapped in a supermarket after their Maine town is engulfed in a haze filled with terrifying creatures.
Horror films generally are trashed by critics, but The Mist earned fairly positive reviews, much like Dimension Films' summer hit 1408, also based on a King story.
Bob Weinstein, co-founder of the Weinstein Co, said that could mean a longer shelf life for The Mist the same way that 1408 hung on in theatres.
"It just stuck around, and hopefully, we'll be around for several weeks," Weinstein said. "We're just so thrilled to be in the Stephen King business."
Expanding nationwide after two weeks in limited release, Miramax's No Country for Old Men came in at No 10 with $8.1m, raising its total to $16.6m. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, the acclaimed crime saga stars Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Media By Numbers LLC.
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