Doc Hudson, left, and Lightning McQueen in a scene from the Disney-Pixar movie Cars. - CONTRIBUTED
LOS ANGELES (AP):
THE ANIMATED comedy Cars raced to first place at the weekend box office with a $62.8 million debut, maintaining the Disney-Pixar cartoon brand's undefeated record with a seventh straight hit.
If the numbers hold when final figures come out Monday, Cars would have the third-best opening in the Disney-Pixar cartoon series, just ahead of Monsters, Inc. but behind The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, which both debuted at about $70 million.
Still, it was the first time since the partnership began with 1995's Toy Story that a Disney-Pixar film did not gross more than its predecessor over opening weekend.
"I look at $62 million as being an accomplishment of great proportion," said Chuck Viane, Disney's head of distribution. "I think to use the baseball analogy, a home run is a home run in anybody's ballpark, whether it's 398 feet or 460 feet. This is a home run."
FEATURED VOICES
The movie features the voices of Owen Wilson and Paul Newman in a story of a hotshot race car that gets a lesson on the value of slowing down when he's sidetracked in a sleepy burgh.
The weekend's other new wide release, 20th Century Fox's horror remake The Omen, was No. 4 with $15.45 million. Starring Julia Stiles and Liev Schreiber in the tale of a demon child, The Omenhas grossed $35.7 million since opening on Tuesday to take advantage of the date 6-6-06 a play on the number signifying the anti-Christ.
In narrower release, Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion premiered solidly at No. 7 with $4.7 million. Playing in 760 cinemas, the film averaged $6,147 a theatre, compared to $15,759 in 3,985 theatres for Cars and $5,674 in 2,723 cinemas for The Omen.
Released by Picturehouse, A Prairie Home Companion features Garrison Keillor in a fictionalised behind-the-scenes portrait of his venerable radio program. The ensemble cast includes Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Tommy Lee Jones, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly and Virginia Madsen.
The top-12 movies took in $148.8 million, up 8 per cent from the same weekend last year, when Mr. and Mrs. Smith debuted with $50.2 million.
BOX OFFICE LISTINGS
1. Cars, $62.8 million.
2. The Break-Up, $20.5 million.
3. X-Men: The Last Stand, $15.55 million.
4. The Omen, $15.45 million.
5. Over the Hedge, $10.301 million.
6. The Da Vinci Code, $10.3 million.
7. A Prairie Home Companion, $4.7 million.
8. Mission: Impossible III, $3 million.
9. RV, $2 million.
10. Poseidon, $1.8 million.
