Underestimated, the ancient Greek warriors' spoof proved to be people's favorite as the 20th Century Fox's comedy beat out Sylvester Stallone's 'Rambo' to claimed the #1 spot in the box office.
- Jan 28, 2008
AceShowbiz - The spoof about the ancient Greek warriors "Meet the Spartans" nabbed the top position in the three-day North American weekend box office ended January 27. Pulling in $18.5 million, the 20th Century Fox's comedy starring Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra, Diedrich Bader and Kevin Sorbo edged out the expectant box office champion "Rambo".
On the narrow lead taken by the PG-13 movie, Paul Dergarabedian, the president of box office tracker Media by Numbers commented, "This was a very tight race for the No. 1 spot. I think we tend to underestimate films like 'Meet the Spartans'. Fox has really locked onto something that's extremely popular." He also noted, "I think everyone expected 'Rambo' to be No. 1. There are definitely a lot of serious films out there now but there was a big enough audience looking to have silly, mindless fun at movie theaters"
"Spartans" tells the hero tale of Leonidas who leads a group of 13 Spartans to defend against the invading Persians. In this movie case, the Persians include Rocky Balboa, Paris Hilton and other pop culture icons. The movie was directed by the producers of the movie parodies "Epic Movie" and "Date Movie" Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It was popular among teenagers and young adults, who made up about 75 percent of the audience.
Meanwhile, following tightly in the second place was the fourth installment of Sylvester Stallone's signature action hero film which debuted with the earning of $18.2 million. The Liongate' revival of "Rambo" was popular among men that are evenly split between those over and under 25. The comeback of the action hero outperformed Stallone's last return film "Rocky Balboa" which grossed $12.2 million on its opening weekend.
The third place belongs to last week's runner-up Katherine Heighl's "27 Dresses" with the earning of $13.4 million. The perpetual bridesmaid film was ahead of the last weekend's monster hit "Cloverfield" which fell down to the fourth spot. Experiencing a drop of 68.3|percent| in sales, the J.J. Abrams-produced thriller film grossed $12.7 million in its second week.
The Screen Gems' latest project "Untraceable" released Friday, January 25, landed in the number five position. The cyber-thriller movie starring Diane Lane gathered $11.4 million. The next two spots showcased a tight competition between adventure-seeking comedy "The Bucket List" and teen pregnancy comedy "Juno". The two comedy films nailed the sixth and seventh position with $10.5 million and $10.1 million respectively.
Dropping one slot to the eight place was Nicolas Cage's gold-seekers film "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" with $4.9 million, whereas jumping to the ninth spot was the Paramount Vantage's drama about a ruthless Texas oilman "There Will Be Blood". Grossing $4.86 million, the Daniel Day-Lewis starring-film was in the top ten for the first time since its debut on December 26, 2007. Rounding up the top ten list was "Mad Money". The crime comedy starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes took in $4.6 million and secured the last spot.
