3-D Movie in the Top 5 at Weekend Box Office
Journey to the Center of the Earth — promoted as the first live-action feature shot in a new digital 3-D process — sold a modest $20.6 million in tickets at North American theaters over the weekend, placing third among the five highest-grossing films for the period.
During a weekend of intense competition that included Hellboy II reaching No. 1 and an Eddie Murphy film that couldn’t crack the top five, the estimated total for Journey was diminished by a shortage of movie theaters capable of screening the movie in its intended 3-D format. The producers had hoped there would be a minimum of about 1,400 auditoriums with the technology. But theater owners have moved more slowly than expected to install the expensive system. By Friday, when Journey to the Center of the Earth opened, there were only 954 screens.
As a result, New Line, the recently slimmed-down branch of Time Warner that released the $54 million picture, had to scramble to tweak the marketing for the film — going so far as to drop “3D” from the title — and implement a standard two-dimensional release in tandem. That may have confused moviegoers.
Still, there were hints buried deeper in the box-office returns suggesting that 3-D is well on its way to becoming a force at multiplexes. Auditoriums screening the movie in 3-D sold more than three times as many tickets as those showing the standard version. About 57 percent of the total gross for Journey to the Center of the Earth, based on the classic Jules Verne tale, came from 3-D screenings.
In comparison, 3-D screenings of Beowulf, the computer-generated picture that opened last November, generated just 28 percent of its opening-weekend gross. (Beowulf was available in 3-D on slightly fewer screens.)
Michael V. Lewis, the chairman of RealD, the company behind the technology used in the film, said he was “ecstatic” about the public’s response. “This demonstrates the power of 3-D and we are going to continue to roll out the technology on a global scale as quickly as possible,” he said.
Elsewhere at the multiplex, Hellboy II: Golden Army, starring a comic-book demon and released by Universal Pictures, opened in the No. 1 slot, selling about $35.9 million in tickets, according to Media by Numbers, a box-office tracking company.
The opening for this $85 million movie significantly outperformed its 2004 predecessor, creating a potential franchise for Universal. Its success is a validation for the studio, which chose to continue with the character after Sony Pictures, which distributed the first movie, passed.
Hancock, starring Will Smith as a misanthropic superhero, was a close No. 2 with an estimated $33 million in sales. This Sony title, which cost about $150 million to produce, excluding marketing costs, has sold about $165 million in tickets in North America during its first two weeks in release; the worldwide tally is $345 million.
Journey to the Center of the Earth, which stars Brendon Fraser, was followed, in fourth position, by the animated Wall-E from the Walt Disney Company ($18.5 million for a new domestic total of $162.8 million). Wall-E has not opened on a wide scale internationally.
Wanted, a Universal movie starring Angelina Jolie as a superhero assassin, rounded out the Top 5 ($11.6 million for a new domestic total of $112 million and a worldwide $176 million). Notable for a dismal opening over the weekend was the most recent offering from Eddie Murphy, Meet Dave, which cost about $60 million to produce and is distributed by 20th Century Fox; it sold about $5.3 million in tickets, only enough for seventh place.
Source: The New York Times
