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Cage's Treasure finds fortune
30/12/2007 22:49 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Fortune-seeker Nicolas Cage, lonely guy Will Smith and a pack of talking chipmunks ended Hollywood's year on a happy note.
Cage's National Treasure: Book of Secrets remained the No. 1 movie at US and Canadian theatres for a second weekend with $35.6m, followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks with $30m and Smith's I Am Legend with $27.5m, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
Those hits along with a solid crop of other holdovers and new movies that opened on Christmas Day capped a year-end hot streak for Hollywood, whose business soared the last few weeks after a sluggish autumn.
"It's being spread among three or four key movies, then another six or seven or eight below that, which is great," said Mark Zoradi, president of the motion-picture group at Disney, which released National Treasure.
The top-12 movies took in $169.2m, up 18% from the final weekend of 2006, when Night at the Museum led the box office with $36.8m.
Hollywood will finish the year with record revenues of about $9.7bn, up from the previous best of $9.45bn in 2004, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
The moneymakers
National Treasure, a sequel with Cage chasing historical clues to find a legendary city of gold, raised its domestic total to $124m.
Alvin and the Chipmunks, 20th Century Fox's big-screen take on the chatty critters, lifted its haul to $142.4m. The Warner Bros. hit I Am Legend, with Smith as a plague survivor who may be the last man alive, has climbed to $194.6m.
Opening with huge numbers in limited release was Paramount Vantage's There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in a tale of greed and violence during California's oil boom in the early 20th century.
Playing at two theatres in New York City and Los Angeles, There Will Be Blood took in $185 525 over the weekend and $309 703 since opening on Wednesday. It expands to the top-10 US markets on Friday.
There Will Be Blood joins other films of violence and misdeeds such as No Country for Old Men, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Michael Clayton aiming for top honours at the Academy Awards. All scored well in this month's Golden Globe nominations.
Feel-good for Oscar?
Savvy Oscar campaigner Harvey Weinstein, who delivered such best-picture winners as Shakespeare in Love and Chicago while at Miramax, said he hoped his feel-good drama The Great Debaters would stand out for awards consideration among all the blood-soaked fare.
A Weinstein Co. release distributed by MGM, The Great Debaters took in $6.3m over the weekend and $13.5m since opening on Christmas.
A Golden Globe nominee for best drama, The Great Debaters features director and star Denzel Washington alongside Forest Whitaker in a story of a black debate team in the 1930s South.
"We're late, but we're hoping we can get that last best-picture spot" for the Oscars, Weinstein said. "The other movies are pretty bloody, but this is an uplifting American story."
Oscar nominations come out January 22.
Other films that debuted on Christmas had solid weekends. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, a sci-fi horror sequel from 20th Century Fox, took in $10.05m, raising its total since opening day to $26.9m. Sony's Loch Ness monster fantasy The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep grossed $9.2m and lifted its sum to $16.8m.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released on Wednesday.
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South Africa
