LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) — Family comedy ?Bringing Down the House,? starring Oscar nominee Queen Latifah and Steve Martin in a spoof on race relations in America, took top honors at the North American box office in its debut weekend, according to studio estimates.
?House,? Walt Disney Co.?s lively comedy lampooning racism, grossed $31.7 million in Friday-through-Sunday ticket sales, according to industry box office service Exhibitor Relations. The film handily defeated rival ?Tears of the Sun,? an action war film starring Bruce Willis, which came in at No. 2 with gross ticket sales of $17.2 million.
As industry watchers had predicted, ?House? seemed to benefit from Oscar buzz for best supporting actress nominee Queen Latifah?s role in ?Chicago.?
In ?House,? the hip-hop singer-turned-actress plays a wrongly imprisoned woman who strikes up an online relationship with a divorced tax attorney played by Martin while in jail. When she is released from prison, she looks him up to help her appeal her conviction. When he balks, she invades his house, life and family business with the intention of embarrassing him into submission. Her plan eventually works and Martin?s character grows in the process.
In ?Tears,? a very different sort of movie, Willis plays a hard-nosed Navy SEAL lieutenant who undergoes a crisis of conscience while rescuing an American doctor (played by Monica Belucci) and her patients from a fictitious civil war.
While the film?s gross was much weaker than its debuting rival, studio executives said they were pleased with the ticket sales as both films were aimed at a similar demographic: young male audiences.
?We probably would have been No. 1 had it not been for ?Bringing Down the House, which was a monster hit,? said Tom Sherak, a partner at Revolution Studios which produced the Sony-distributed film. ?We are all very thrilled with the numbers based on how movies have been opening over the last six months and we?re hoping we?re going to have a very good run.?
Trailing after the two newcomers was the bawdy buddy DreamWorks comedy ?Old School,? which took No. 3 with $9.2 million, followed by another Oscar nominee, ?Chicago,? a film about murderous showgirls, which moved up a notch over the weekend to No. 4 from No. 5, grossing $6.9 million following a flurry of pre-Oscar advertising.
?Chicago,? released by Disney?s Miramax films and starring Richard Gere and Renee Zellweger — is already leading the Oscar pack with 13 nominations. Its total cumulative ticket sales to date are $114.5 million.
Last week?s No. 4 film, ?How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days,? dropped to No. 5 with $6.8 million for the weekend, down 34 percent from the previous week. The romantic comedy, starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, was released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., and has grossed $86.9 million to date.
Last week?s top box office pick, ?Cradle 2 the Grave,? a martial arts action film with an urban attitude, fell to No. 6 over the weekend with $6.6 million, down 60 percent from a week earlier.
In seventh place was ?Daredevil,? a Marvel Comics adaptation starring Ben Affleck, which generated $5.1 million. The film, released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.?s Fox Entertainment Group Inc., dropped 54 percent from a week earlier. However since opening four weeks ago ?Daredevil? has grossed $91.5 million.
Rounding out the top 10 was ?The Jungle Book 2,? Disney?s low-budget sequel to the 1967 cartoon, which fell to No. 8 from No. 6 a week earlier, grossing $4.2 million. Taking No. 9 was another Disney film, ?Shanghai Knights,? a period comedy starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, grossing $2.7 million. The film fell two notches from last week.
In the No. 10 spot was Kevin Spacey?s death penalty drama, ?The Life of David Gale,? with $2.1 million. The film, which fell from No. 8 a week earlier, co-stars Kate Winslet and was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Vivendi Universal.
