Oded Fehr (left) and Milla Jovovich in a scene from the movie 'Resident Evil: Extinction'. - Contributed photos
LOS ANGELES (AP):
THE UNDEAD of Resident Evil still have plenty of life in them.
Sony Screen Gems' Resident Evil: Extinction, with Milla Jovovich again fighting flesh-hungry zombies in the third installment based on the video game, opened as the number one weekend film with US$24 million, according to studio estimates yesterday.
It was the best debut for the franchise, topping the US$23 million debut of part two, 2004's Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The studio hinted there could be more Resident Evil movies, though the latest had been billed as the final one.
"Until the next," joked Rory Bruer, Sony's head of distribution. "It absolutely would not surprise me, considering the success of the franchise, that they find a way to come up with another. It's a real possibility."
Thrashing from critics
Lionsgate's Good Luck Chuck, with Jessica Alba and Dane Cook in a romantic comedy about a man jinxed at finding true love, made its debut in second place with US$14 million despite an almost universal thrashing from critics.
Universal's Sydney White, starring Amanda Bynes as a college freshman who teams with fraternity house dorks in a fight against campus snobs, premiered at number six with US$5.3 million.
The previous weekend's top movie, the Warner Bros. drama The Brave One, fell to number three with US$7.4 million, raising its total to US$25.1 million.
Brad Pitt's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Sean Penn's Into the Wild each opened strongly in limited release. Penn went behind the camera for his fourth directing effort on Into the Wild, which took in US$206,596 at four theatres for a whopping average of US$51,649 a cinema, compared with US$8,487 in 2,828 theatres for Resident Evil: Extinction.
Outlaw's chronicle
Released by Paramount Vantage, Into the Wild stars Emile Hirsch in the real-life story of Christopher McCandless, a college graduate whose two-year odyssey of self-exploration across North America ended tragically in Alaska.
Pitt stars as the legendary outlaw in the Warner Bros. saga Assassination of Jesse James which took in US$144,000 in five theatres, averaging US$28,800. The film chronicles the last year of James' life as the Wild West outlaw lapses into paranoia over betrayal by cohorts, among them young admirer Ford (Casey Affleck.)
Into the Wild begins expanding to more theatres Friday, while Assassination of Jesse James starts going into wider release on October 5.
Focus Features' Eastern Promises, with Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts in a drama set among Russian mobsters in London, expanded from a handful of theatres into nationwide release, coming in at number five with US$5.7 million.
Murder mystery
Mike Epps in a scene from same the movie.
Sony's Across the Universe, with Evan Rachel Wood in a musical romance using Beatles' songs, expanded from narrow release and pulled in US$2.05 million.
Warner Independent's In the Valley of Elah, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron in a murder mystery set among United States troops newly returned from Iraq, also expanded from limited release and grossed US$1.3 million.
The top-five movies all had R-ratings, an unusual occurrence for a movie market generally dominated by PG-13 flicks.
"The Rs have it this weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "That makes sense in this fall season, when grittier, more intense films are released."
