Wow! I would have thought this as unlikely as Tiger losing the PGA Championship.
~rave!
--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Keith Johnson <keithbjohn...@...> wrote:
>
>
> [AP News]
>
> 'District 9' lifts off with No. 1 weekend at $37M
>
>
> By DAVID GERMAIN
>
>
> The Associated Press
>
>
>
>
> LOS ANGELES â" The first-time director and cast of unknowns of the acclaimed
> sci-fi thriller "District 9 " have given Hollywood a late-summer box-office
> boost.
>
>
>
> Enlarge photo
> This movie still released by Sony Pictures shows, left to right, Sharlto
> Copley, Mandla Gaduka and Kenneth Nkosi in "District 9." (AP Photo/Sony
> Pictures)This movie still released by Sony Pictures shows, left to right,
> Sharlto Copley, Mandla Gaduka and Kenneth Nkosi in "District 9." (AP
> Photo/Sony Pictures)
>
>
>
>
> The Sony release produced by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson led
> the weekend with a $37 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.
>
> "District 9" is the debut feature from commercial and music-video director
> Neill Blomkamp, who co-wrote the tale about extraterrestrials forced by
> humans to live in squalor in a ghetto in South Africa.
>
> The movie built audience interest with a clever marketing campaign playing up
> the theme of prejudice against aliens, including posters instructing citizens
> to report non-humans and ads on bus benches stating that the seats are for
> humans only.
>
>
>
>
> "Everybody was like, 'What is this?' There was a big question mark in
> people's minds," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It did
> really pique their interest and drove them to the Internet and elsewhere to
> discover what's going on."
>
>
>
>
> The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Paramount's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of
> Cobra," slipped to second place with $22.5 million, raising its 10-day total
> to $98.8 million.
>
>
>
>
> Another sci-fi tale, the Warner Bros. romance "The Time Traveler's Wife"
> starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, opened asolid No. 3 with $19.2
> million. The film joined the previous weekend's "Julie&Julia" as a choice for
> women, with females accounting for 76 percent of its audience.
>
> "District 9" and "Time Traveler's Wife" led a wave of five new wide releases
> for mid-August, when Hollywood's summer output normally is petering out. The
> rush continues next weekend with another surge of new releases, led by
> Quentin Tarantino's World War II saga "Inglourious Basterds."
>
>
>
>
> "It's getting very crowded, and it's these films that want to compete in the
> summer time frame but can't compete in the sweet spot of summer," said Paul
> Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "Opening 'District 9'
> against 'Star Trek,' that would not be a good strategy. But to release it now
> makes sense. August is the month of opportunity for films that in other
> months of summer would get slaughtered."
>
>
>
>
> The weekend's other debuts: Paramount Vantage's used-car comedy "The Goods:
> Live Hard, Sell Hard," opening at No. 6 with $5.4 million; Disney's animated
> adventure "Ponyo" from animation master Hayao Miyazaki ("Spirited Away"),
> coming in at No. 9 with $3.5 million; and Summit Entertainment's teen rock
> 'n' roll tale "Bandslam," which tanked at No. 13 with just $2.3 million
> despite a cast that includes Vanessa Hudgens of "High School Musical."
>
> It was Hollywood's second weekend in a row of rising revenues after a
> monthlong slide compared with summer 2008, when the Batman blockbuster "The
> Dark Knight" was smashing box-office records.
>
>
>
>
> Overall receipts came in at $142 million, up 14 percent from the same weekend
> a year ago, when "Tropic Thunder" debuted at No. 1 with $25.8 million.
>
>
>
>
> Revenues since the summer season opened the first weekend of May are at $3.77
> billion, just a fraction below where Hollywood was last summer, according to
> Hollywood.com.
>
>
>
>
> Factoring in higher ticket prices, admissions are off 4 percent compared to
> summer 2008, though movie attendance remains strong given how "The Dark
> Knight" dominated a year ago. The biggest blockbuster since "Titanic," ''The
> Dark Knight" topped out with a domestic haul of $531 million.
>
>
>
>
> "Considering we had a movie of that magnitude in the mix, I think this summer
> has held up very well for itself," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for
> Warner Bros., which released "The Dark Knight."
>
> Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian
> theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
>
>
>
>
> 1. "District 9," $37 million.
>
> 2. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," $22.5 million.
>
> 3. "The Time Traveler's Wife," $19.2 million.
>
> 4. "Julie&Julia," $12.4 million.
>
> 5. "G-Force," $6.9 million.
>
> 6. "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard," $5.4 million.
>
> 7. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," $5.2 million.
>
> 8. "The Ugly Truth," $4.5 million.
>
> 9. "Ponyo," $3.5 million.
>
> 10. "500 Days of Summer," $3 million.
>
