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Moviegoers say 'Yes Man' to Jim Carrey comedy
2008-12-23
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The comedy "Yes Man," in which rubber-faced actor Jim Carrey changes his life by agreeing to everything, topped the US and Canadian box office over the weekend, final industry figures showed Monday. The film raked in 18.2 million dollars in its Friday to Sunday debut weekend, the ticket sales tracking company Exhibitor Relations reported. In second place was another film debut, the drama "Seven Pounds" starring Will Smith as a man haunted by a secret. The movie pulled in 14.8 million dollars -- the weakest opening of a Will Smith movie in nearly a decade, according to specialty press. The animated flick "The Tale of Despereaux," based on a popular children's book of the same name about a big-eared mouse with great curiosity and ambitions, earned 10.1 million dollars for third place in its opening week. Last week's number one, science fiction thriller "The Day the Earth Stood Still," dropped to fourth place. The Fox re-make of a 1951 cult classic, which stars Keanu Reeves as an alien that comes to earth, took in 9.8 million dollars for a two-week total of 48 million dollars. The comedy "Four Christmases," starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn as a couple struggling to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas, ranked fifth. The Warner Bros. movie earned 7.7 million dollars, for a haul of 100 million since it opened four weeks ago, Exhibitor Relations said. Teen vampire movie "Twilight" ended up in sixth place, pulling in 5.1 million dollars and pushing its total earnings to 158 million dollars since opening. Disney's animated "Bolt" was ranked seventh, earning 4.1 million dollars over the weekend with its saga of a dog who grows up thinking he has superhero powers, only to find out he does not. "Slumdog Millionaire" from British director Danny Boyle, the tale of an boy who grows up in the Mumbai slums to become a contestant on India's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" ranked eight with more than 3 million dollars in revenues, followed by the Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman romantic epic "Australia," with 2.1 million dollars in earnings. The latest James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," came in 10th with just over two million dollars, for a total six-week haul of 161 million dollars. Weekend ticket sales in the United States and Canada reached 80.7 million dollars, a steep 46 percent drop from the more than 151 million dollars reported in ticket sales in the same period last year. Specialty press noted that there were several factors affecting ticket sales, including bad weather hitting much of North America, shoppers on last-minute Christmas errands, and the effects of the global financial meltdown.
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