A scene from the movie '30 Days of Night'. - Contributed
LOS ANGELES (Reuters):
The vampires of 30 Days of Night feasted on Ben Affleck, Reese Witherspoon and Benicio Del Toro at a blood-soaked weekend box office in North America.
In what amounted to a movie massacre, high-powered dramas from the Oscar-winning stars debuted disastrously, as audiences continued to opt for escapist fare. Another problem was a glut of new releases, with five debuts in the top 10.
30 Days of Night, a vampire thriller starring Josh Hartnett and Danny Huston, opened at number one with estimated three-day sales of $16 million, distributor Columbia Pictures said yesterday. The opening for the $30 million movie met the expectations of the Sony Corp. unit.
Gone Baby Gone
Affleck arrived at number five with his directing debut, Gone Baby Gone, in which he cast younger brother Casey as a Boston private eye investigating a child kidnapping. The Miramax Films release sold $6 million worth of tickets.
The Walt Disney Co.-owned studio had hoped to pass $10 million, but "we're in pretty good shape," said president Daniel Battsek. "I'm not going to pretend I'm dancing through hoops."
The movie cost less than $20 million to make, and it played in 1,713 theatres, one of the smallest counts in the top 10.
At least it did better than Rendition, in which Witherspoon plays a woman whose Egyptian-born husband is kidnapped and tortured by the CIA. It opened at number nine with $4.2 million. The film's distributor, New Line Cinema, had also hoped it would break $10 million.
The Time Warner Inc. unit had tried to convince moviegoers that the film was different from a slew of recent war-related disappointments, including The Kingdom and In the Valley of Elah. Evidently, to no avail.
South African filmmaker Gavin Hood ('Tsotsi') directed the film which cost about $30 million to make.
Bringing up the rear was Things We Lost in the Fire, a domestic tragedy that has earned raves for Del Toro's portrayal of a heroin addict. The DreamWorks-Paramount release failed to ignite, opening at number 15 with $1.6 million. Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier directed the film, which also stars Halle Berry.
Industry pundits had expected a $10 million-plus bow, but DreamWorks said $3 million to $4 million was more realistic. The film cost about $16 million to make. It marks the second disappointment for the Viacom Inc. units after the Ben Stiller comedy The Heartbreak Kid three weeks ago.
Two other new entries
The two other new entries in the top 10 were lighter fare: the Fox Atomic sports-movie spoof The Comebacks at number six with $5.9 million, and Disney's 3-D version of director Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas at number eight with $5.1 million. Fox Atomic is a unit of News Corp.
More than 30 films have opened in the past two weekends, many of them jockeying for attention in the early days of awards season, said box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers LLC.
"Some of them are the best-reviewed of the year, but it seems audiences are indifferent to them," he said.
Last weekend's leader, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.'s romantic comedy-drama Why Did I Get Married? slipped to number two with $12.1 million. Disney's family comedy The Game Plan, another former champ, was third with $8.1 million.
