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Hannah conquers box office
04/02/2008 09:40 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Walt Disney's 3-D movie
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concerts
topped movie box offices, raking in $29m for the biggest
opening for a normally slow Super Bowl weekend, according to
studio estimates on Sunday.
With US professional football's championship game
dominating the entertainment landscape, the 3-D movie of Cyrus'
(aka Hannah Montana) 2007 singing tour brought teenage girls
streaming into theatres with their parents, said Mark Zoradi,
president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group.
"We're looking at this and realising we made a little piece
of movie history," Zoradi said.
"This has been a family movie,
and we've had lots of parents exiting theatres saying, 'thank
you because we couldn't get into any of her concerts.'"
Supernatural thriller The Eye, starring Jessica Alba,
took the No 2 slot at US and Canadian box offices with a $13m weekend.
The No 3 movie was romantic comedy 27 Dresses
with $8.4m, according to industry tracker Media By
Numbers.
Secret singing career
Cyrus, the teenage daughter of country singer Billy Ray
Cyrus, portrays the title character of Hannah Montana on the
Disney Channel cable TV programme of the same name.
Hannah leads
a typical teenage life by day, but has a secret singing career
on weekends. The show is a hit with young viewers.
The concert movie's No 1 performance was even more
important in Hollywood for several reasons.
Ticket sales came from screenings in only about 680 theatres
and grossed an average of nearly $42 500 per theatre, according to
the Walt Disney Co.
A typical No 1 movie in wide release would
open in around 3 000 theatres and average perhaps $7 000 per
theatre.
Moreover, new digital 3-D movies are seen as a growing
industry trend because theatre owners want to put new types of
entertainment in their venues so they can compete for audiences
against DVDs, video games and the internet.
New 3-D format
The format also allows live concerts like the Hannah Montana
shows, or sporting events like football or basketball games, to be
shown in theatres in 3-D.
Promoters say watching events in this
new 3-D format makes audiences feel like they are in the live
venue.
For legions of Hannah Montana fans, that factor seemed to
be especially important.
Cyrus' concert tour late last year was
a sell-out and among the hardest live act tickets to come by.
"These 3-D movies can really take you to a place you
wouldn't normally go," said Michael Lewis, chief executive
officer of the company Real D, whose 3-D technology is used in
screening the Hannah Montana concert movie.
Based on the opening weekend's popularity, Disney said it
is extending the movie's run in theatres.
- Reuters
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South Africa
