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'Max Payne' tops box office, outshines Bush biopic
2008-10-20
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - "Max Payne" marked a successful transition from video game star to movie hero as the film debuted atop the North American box office at the weekend, final figures showed Monday. The noir, fantasy-tinged movie, based on the best-selling video game and starring Mark Wahlberg as an undercover New York cop hell-bent on revenge, earned 17.6 million dollars, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said. Payne knocked the pooches of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" off their number one perch and easily outstripped Oliver Stone's biopic of President George W. Bush, "W", which opened in fourth place. Walt Disney's "Beverly Hills Chihuahua", about a pampered pup forced to fend for herself on Mexico's mean streets, was second with 11.4 million dollars. Buzzing into third place in its debut weekend was "The Secret Life of Bees," a sweet story of a young white girl (Dakota Fanning) taken in by three African-American sisters. The film, an adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's best-selling book, took in 10.53 million dollars. Stone's hotly anticipated "W." was closely behind in fourth, earning 10.5 million dollars. Slipping one notch to fifth, with a seven-million-dollar take, was "Eagle Eye," a futuristic thriller starring young Hollywood phenomenon Shia LaBeouf about a villain who infiltrates phones, televisions and computers. In sixth place was the Ridley Scott-directed spy thriller "Body of Lies", starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, which earned 6.8 million. "Quarantine," last weekend's second place finisher about a television crew trapped in a small apartment building whose residents have been infected with a new strain of rabies, slipped to seventh, earning six million dollars. Romantic comedy "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," featuring "Juno" and "Superbad" star Michael Cera, took eighth place, with 3.7 million dollars. Debuting in ninth spot was "Sex Drive," which follows the tried-and-true formula of teen sex comedy -- 18-year-old virgin protagonist obsesses over losing virginity -- to earn 3.6 million dollars. Big-screen veterans Diane Lane and Richard Gere try to rekindle some romance in "Nights in Rodanthe," which rounded out the top 10 with 2.6 million dollars.
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