BBC NEWS
Travolta comedy hogs film chart
Wild Hogs, an all-star road movie about four middle-aged men, has entered North America's film chart at number one.
Featuring John Travolta, Tim Allen, William H Macy and Martin Lawrence, it took $38m (£19.8m), estimates suggest.
Serial-killer thriller Zodiac was new at number two, while last week's chart-topper, Ghost Rider, was third.
Some critics panned Wild Hogs, with the Washington Post saying it was "born to be mild" and the Los Angeles Times complaining of "rehashed jokes".
But film was relatively successful in box office terms, proving to be the highest-grossing opening weekend for any Disney film released in March, and the largest-ever debut weekend for Travolta.
"It's so easy to see in the material how much fun they were having together," Chuck Viane, president of distribution at Disney, told the Associated Press.
"The audience was looking for that first great comedy of the year."
Oscars impact
Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr, was the first film for director David Fincher since he released Panic Room in 2002.
NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE
1. Wild Hogs ($38m)
2. Zodiac (pictured, $13.1m)
3. Ghost Rider ($11.5m)
4. Bridge to Terabithia ($8.6m)
5. The Number 23 ($7.1m)
6. Norbit ($6.4m)
7. Music and Lyrics ($4.9m)
8. Black Snake Moan ($4m)
9. Reno 911!: Miami ($3.8m)
10. Breach ($3.5m)
Source: Media by Numbers
The actors play a group of men obsessed with finding a serial killer who struck in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Below Nicolas Cage's comic book film Ghost Rider was Disney's childhood fantasy Bridge to Terabithia, which fell one place to number four.
And The Number 23, a thriller starring Jim Carrey, dropped to fifth place.
Forest Whitaker's Oscar for best actor last Sunday helped takings for The Last King of Scotland climb by a quarter compared to a week ago.
But the story of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin did not re-enter the top 10.
There was no such rise for The Queen, starring best actress winner Dame Helen Mirren, which dropped 17% week-on-week.
A box office comparison could not be made for the best film at the Academy Awards - Martin Scorsese's The Departed - as it is already available on DVD in North America.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/ente...ent/6418445.stm
Published: 2007/03/05 08:21:41 GMT
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