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'Burn' blazes to top of North American box office
2008-09-14
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - "Burn After Reading", the newest dark comedy by sibling directors Ethan and Joel Coen, was the top weekend movie draw in the United States and Canada, preliminary industry figures showed Sunday. The film, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, debuted with 19.4 million dollars in North American ticket sales, according to industry tracking company Exhibitor Relations. In second place was the melodrama "The Family that Preys" by playwright-turned-filmmaker Tyler Perry with 18 million dollars, followed by police drama "Righteous Kill" starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, with 16.5 million dollars. The modern update of the classic film "The Women," starring Hollywood sweetheart Meg Ryan, was in fourth place with 10 million dollars. In fifth was "The House Bunny," about an ousted Playboy bunny who becomes a college sorority house mother, with 4.3 million dollars. The spoof "Tropic Thunder" -- Ben Stiller's movie-within-a-movie about filming a war flick in the middle of a real-life conflict zone -- came in sixth place with 4.1 million dollars in receipts. "Batman" sequel "The Dark Knight" was seventh with four million dollars. The blockbuster film also claimed the title of second all-time box office champion with 512 million dollars in ticket sales since its release. Last week's box office winner "Bangkok Dangerous," starring Nicolas Cage as a ruthless hitman on assignment in Thailand, fell to eighth this week with just 2.4 million dollars in sales. "Traitor," a war-on-terror epic featuring Don Cheadle as a former US Special Ops officer and potential international conspirator, was ninth, pocketing 2.4 million dollars. In 10th place was "Death Race," an action-adventure flick about an ex-convict competing against prison inmates in a freedom-or-death car race, with two million dollars in ticket sales.
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