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Jumper hops to box office top
18/02/2008 10:09 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Jumper, the Doug Liman fantasy about a teen hero who can teleport himself across the globe in an instant, hopped straight to the top of the North American box office on its opening weekend, according to Hollywood figures.
The science fiction/action film, based on Steven Gould's 1992 novel, rode the special effects of director Liman - who made the films of the hyper-successful Jason Bourne franchise - to a box office take of $27.2m on a relatively slow weekend at the movies, according to box office watcher Exhibitor Relations.
Jumper, which stars Hayden Christensen as the hero and Samuel Jackson as his anti-jumping nemesis, led a quartet of newcomer films this week which pushed all but one of recent hits out of the top five.
Also in a debut was Step Up 2: The Streets, sequel to the 2006 hit dance film Step Up pitting rival dancers against each other and the establishment on the mean streets of Baltimore.
Step Up 2 earned $19.7m for the weekend, pipping The Spiderwick Chronicles, filmed from the popular kids book series of the same name, which sold $19.1m in tickets on its opening weekend.
Surviving in the top five for its second week was the treasure hunter comedy Fool's Gold, starring Hollywood heartthrob Matthew McConaughey and golden girl Kate Hudson, which brought in $13.1m.
Flashbacks
Launching in fifth place on $9.7m in earnings was romance-comedy Definitely Maybe, in which just-divorcing Dad (Ryan Reynolds) is prodded into recounting the history of his love life - played out through flashbacks with actresses like Rachel Weisz playing his exes - to his 10 year old daughter, played by Abigail Breslin.
Filling out the top 10 for the week were Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins ($8.9m); Juno ($4.6m); The Bucket List ($4.1m); Hannah Montana ($3.3m); and 27 Dresses ($3.2m).
Breakout hit Juno took its five-week total to $124.1m on the weekend, but overall the US and Canadian box office take was down, $118.9m for the top 12 films compared to $141.9m for the same weekend a year ago, according to Exhibitor Relations.
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South Africa
