The Green Hornet flies high as North America box office withers
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From L to R: Actor Jay Chou, Executive Producer/Writer/ Actor Seth Rogen, Chairman, CEO and President, Sony Corporation Sir Howard Stringer, Actress Cameron Diaz and Director Michel Gondry arrive at "The Green Hornet 3D" Los Angeles Premiere held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on January 10, 2011 in Hollywood, United States. [CFP]? |
Two films of different genres made their debut in the North America movie theaters over the weekend, and are expected to end the day with one-two finishes as Hollywood continued to walk along a downhill road in terms of receipts.
"The Green Hornet (3-D)" is expected to garner 34 million dollars in sales, gaining ground on a bunch of holdovers including some Academy Awards hopefuls after it opened at 3,500-strong locations. The action/adventure flick, which was based on the character of the same name that had originated in a 1930s radio program and has since become the major source for wealth of pop culture, somewhat underperformed as it was expected to exceed 45- 50 million dollars over the four-day Martin Luther King Day weekend. And its distributor Sony will have to look to overseas market to make ends meet. The film, starring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou, is rumored to be made with a budget somewhere around 125-150 million dollars.
"The Dilemma," a comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, is expected to be No. 2 in the box office derby, fetching 17.4 million dollars in movie ticket receipts. The film is directed at an audience 25 years old and up, serving as a counterprogram against "The Green Hornet (3-D)," which mainly attracts young people.
Universal, the distributor, hopes for the film to perform similarly to its 2009 release "It's Complicated," which had an opening weekend of 22.1 million dollars and grossed 112.7 million dollars in its theatrical run.
In the meantime, the attendance in North America continued to go downhill, with estimated attendance dropped to the lowest in 15 years. In 2010, a total of 1.27 billion people were expected to have had watched the films in theaters, bringing about 10.57 billion dollars in sales, around 30 million dollars less than the 2009 figure, marking the second severe drop-off since 2005.
The holdovers ruled the box office, preliminary statistics gathered by box office authorities show.
"True Grit," a retooling of the 1969 John Wayne classic western, is expected to sell 11.2 million dollars in ticket stubs and finish third in place. The Jeff Bridges vehicle has netted a total of 126.4 million dollars since opening over the Christmas holidays. A pair of Oscar hopefuls, "The Black Swan," and "The King's Speech, " trailed with 9 million dollars and 8.1 million dollars, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
Rounding out the top ten most popular films in the North America box office are:
-- No. 6: "Little Fockers," 7.1 million dollars;
-- No. 7: "TRON:Legacy," 5.7 million dollars;
-- No. 8: "Yogi Bear," 5.3 million dollars;
-- No. 9: "The Fighter," 5.1 million dollars, and
-- No. 10: "Season of the Witch," 4.5 million dollars.
