"Super 8" beats "X-Men" to be number one at North America box office

2011-06-13 03:03:33

LOS ANGELES, June 12 (Xinhua) -- A bunch of school children living in the late 1970s overpowered a superhero team in box office derby fought across North America this weekend, with "Super 8" opened with 37 million U.S. dollars in movie ticket sales which relegated "X-Men: First Class" to number two place, statistics released by industry authorities showed on Sunday.

The sci-fi/horror film, which was shot as a homage to the early films of Steven Spielberg, who produced the film, opened for previews Thursday and took in 12.17 million dollars during the day, nudging its running total up to 38 million dollars, according to distributor Paramount Pictures. Written and directed by J. J. Abrams, who also directed "Mission: Impossible III" (2006) and " Star Trek" (2009), the film opened to widest release on roughly 5, 500 screens at 3,379 location in Canada and the United States.

The sci-fi film "defies the naysayers and performs way above projections," said Hollywood analyst Paul Degerabedian. "A 15 percent uptick on Saturday reflects great word-of-mouth."

The Abrams-Spielberg collaboration has received a positive feedback from movie critics. Movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 82 percent, with a rating average of 7. 5 out of a possible 10. However, its frequent homages to, or imitation of earlier Spielberg films have produced negative reviews.

As a result, it received a B+ from CinemaScore which was collected from opening night moviegoers, making it a so-so performance. Exit polling conducted by Paramount Pictures showed that 71 percent of its audience was over 25 years old and 56 percent was male.

Last week's box office winner, "X-Men: First Class," from the 20th Century Fox, a prequel to the four other movies in the "X-Men " franchise, had a 25 million dollar weekend, and is on track to post an estimated 98.9 million dollars in gate in 10 days. Sitting in third place is "The Hangover Part II," a comedy sequel which grossed 18.5 million dollars this weekend for a total of 216.6 million dollars over three weeks.

"Kung Fu Panda 2," a 3-D animated film from Paramount/ DreamWorks, took in 16.6 million dollars in fourth place. It is on track to reap 127 million dollars over three weeks.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," the fourth sequel to the hit "pirates" franchise from the Walt Disney Studios, is projected to sell 10.8 million dollars in ticket stubs. It has amassed a total of 208.8 million dollars during four weeks of showing.

Rounding out the 10 most-popular movies this weekend are: " Bridesmaids" (10.2 million dollars), "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer" (opening with 6.3 million dollars), "Midnight in Paris" (6.1 million dollars), "Thor" (2.4 million dollars) and " Fast Five" (1.7 million dollars).

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