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Bucket comedy leads box office
14/01/2008 12:25 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Jack Nicholson and Morgan
Freeman narrowly took the No 1 spot at the weekend box office
in North America with their comedy The Bucket List, according
to studio estimates issued on Sunday.
The Warner Bros release, in which the Oscar-winning duo
play cancer patients who decide to spend their last days on a
high note, earned $19.5m during the three days beginning
on Friday.
It expanded across the United States and Canada after
playing for two weekends in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto.
Sales stand at almost $21m.
The film marks the best opening for director Rob Reiner,
surpassing the $15.5m bow of A Few Good Men in 1992,
said Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc.
New at No 2 was First Sunday, a comedy starring Ice
Cube, a rapper now carving out a lucrative career in family
movies. The film earned $19m.
Ice Cube, a veteran of the Friday and Barbershop
movies, plays a ne'er-do-well who decides to rob a church.
Tracy Morgan and Katt Williams co-star.
The film was released
by Screen Gems, the low-budget arm of Sony Corp's Columbia
Pictures.
Award season favourite
The teen pregnancy comedy Juno slipped one place to No 3
with $14m, taking its total to $71.25m after six
weeks.
The award season favourite is a day away from surpassing
2004's Sideways ($71.5m) to become the most successful
film for Fox Searchlight, News Corp's art-house distributor.
After three weekends at No 1, Walt Disney Co's National
Treasure: Book of Secrets fell to No 4 with $11.5m,
taking its total to $187.3m.
The 20th Century Fox children's movie Alvin and the
Chipmunks slipped one spot to No 5 with $9.1m, and a
total of $187.7m after four weeks.
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