Hit express

Ride Along cruises to a second win at U.S. box-office

Ride Along, a buddy cop comedy starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, raced to the top of the weekend box-office charts for the second week in a row, collecting $21.2 million in ticket sales.
The Afghanistan war tale Lone Survivor took the No. 2 spot with ticket sales of $12.6 million. Mark Wahlberg plays the role of the only one of four U.S. SEALs to return from a vicious fire fight with Taliban fighters.
The animated film The Nut Job, featuring the voices of Will Arnett and Katherine Heigl, was third with $12.3 million in sales at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to studio figures provided by Rentrak.
In a week in which the top three films mirrored last week’s results, I, Frankenstein, an action film in which Victor Frankenstein’s creation is reimagined as a hero battling gargoyles, was the only major new release. It opened in sixth place with ticket sales of $8.3 million.
Ride Along received mostly negative reviews, with only 17 per cent positive writeups according to aggregator website Rottentomatoes. But the movie opened far stronger than expected a week ago with ticket sales of $41.2 million to easily surpass Hollywood projections. The film has collected sales of just over $75 million since its January 17 release.
Universal Pictures, the studio behind both Ride Along and Lone Survivor, said the films’ one-two punch marked the first time a single studio’s films have grabbed the top two spots for two consecutive weeks in nearly two decades. Warner Bros., last achieved the feat in February 1994, with On Deadly Ground and Ace Ventura.
I, Frankenstein, which fell short of industry forecasts of an opening weekend between $10 million and $15 million, received generally poor reviews, but 57 per cent of the audience said they liked it, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Based on actor Kevin Grevioux’s graphic novel, it takes place in a dark, dystopian world. Actor Aaron Eckhart plays the title role, with not much resemblance to the monster in earlier films based on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. Less gruesome, he is blessed with extraordinary speed and endurance. Lionsgate Films acted chiefly as its distributor, with Lakeshore Entertainment funding most of its reported $65 million production costs.
Disney’s long-running animated hit Frozen claimed the No. 4 spot with $9 million. The musical is nearing $350 million in domestic sales in its 10th week in release. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, starring Chris Pine as the late author Tom Clancy’s fictional CIA analyst, rounded out the top five with ticket sales of $8.8 million. The strongest finisher among major Oscar-nominated films was American Hustle, which took seventh place selling $7.1 million worth of tickets for a total domestic haul of $127 million.

 

The big debut

Yash Raj Films’ Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman to open 67th Cannes film festival 

Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman has been selected to open the world renowned Cannes Film Festival on May 14. YRF Entertainment and Stone Angels produced the film.
The film will screen out of competition in Cannes’ Official Selection and the opening ceremony will be broadcast to a number of participating cinemas.
Directed by Olivier Dahan and produced by Uday Chopra, Pierre-Ange le Pogam and Arash Amel, who also wrote the screenplay, Grace of Monaco will be released worldwide. The Weinstein Company will distribute the film in the U.S. An ecstatic Chopra said about the thrilling news “I knew from the moment I read the wonderful script, penned by Arash Amel, that we had something special in Grace of Monaco. Watching Nicole bring that character to life only increased my excitement about the project.
I guess today, after viewing the film, the Cannes Film Festival agrees with our belief in the movie and shares in our excitement. I feel proud that YRF Entertainment in its first release in Hollywood has managed to reach this milestone. My only regret is that my Dad is not alive to see this happen.”