Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
Mar 24, 2008, 1:05 PM
|
|
Who's on first again: Horton #1 for second weekend
|
|
|
"Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!" stayed on top of the North American box office for the second weekend in a row, grossing about $25.1 million worth of tickets during the three days starting Friday.
Starring the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, Blue Sky Studios' Horton Hears A Who! -- distributed by 20th Century Fox -- has matched its production budget by earning $86.5 million in the United States and Canada over 10 days.
It's this year's first release to lead the box office for two weekends, although Horton ticket sales declined a sizable 44% over the opening weekend.
"People like the film and they can take the whole family," said Bert Livingston, Fox's senior vice-president of distribution.
Second place in North American theaters went to the live-action comedy Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (Lionsgate), starring Angela Bassett, with $20 million.
Horton earned $25.2 million from 49 international markets over the Easter weekend to make $50 million abroad since its opening. It made $6.1 million from a No. 1 debut in Britain, as well as $2.5 million from its second-place premiere in Australia.
Overall, ticket sales fell 16.6% to $112 million over the previous weekend, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC. Sales have fallen for five of the last six weekends. This was the worst Easter weekend for the box office in three years (sales were 8% lower than last year's Easter weekend).
To date this year, sales are $1.97 billion, up 1.3%, said Media By Numbers. However, the small increase came about because of ticket-price inflation, as the number of tickets sold fell by nearly 2%, the company said.
Ticket sales were estimated for Friday through Sunday, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures were to be released Monday.
-------------------------
"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
|
|
|
|
