Movie-goers were easy prey for a double dose of space invaders.
The sci-fi smackdown Alien vs Predator, featuring the creatures of the Alien and Predator franchises, debuted as the number one weekend movie with $38,25-million, studio estimates showed on Sunday.
Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews reprising their royal roles, opened in second place with a three-day gross of $23-million, pushing its total since premiering on Wednesday to $37,2-million.
That was about on par with the $37,9-million The Princess Diaries took in over its entire first week in August 2001.
The new movies bumped the previous weekend’s top film, Tom Cruise’s Collateral, to third place with $16-million.
The animated kid flick Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, adapted from the TV cartoon show from Japan, debuted at number four with $9,4-million.
Alien vs Predator, featuring Sanaa Lathan and Aliens and Alien 3 co-star Lance Henriksen, centres on a human expedition that stumbles on a space-monster blood feud in an ancient pyramid buried below Antarctica.
The movie debuted slightly ahead of the $36,4-million debut of last summer’s horror hybrid Freddy vs Jason, which paired the slashers of the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises.
”This continues the trend of combining franchises to very strong box-office results,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. ”If you’re a fan of the Alien movies, you want to see this movie. If you’re a fan of Predator, you want to see this movie.”
Audiences shelled out $16,8-million to see Alien vs Predator on Friday, but the movie’s gross fell to $12,5-million on Saturday, a steep 26% decline. Most new movies do better business on Saturday than on Friday.
That’s a sign that Alien vs Predator could follow the pattern of Freddy vs Jason and other horror tales, which tend to open well then plunge in subsequent weekends.
Still, Freddy vs Jason topped out at a healthy $82,2-million domestically.
Budgeted at $60-million, Alien vs Predator would turn a solid profit for 20th Century Fox if it matches the gross of Freddy vs Jason.
Preceded by Alien vs Predator video games, the movie drew a largely male audience, most younger than 25. To broaden its appeal, 20th Century Fox brought the movie in at a PG-13 rating, though the previous four Alien films and two Predator flicks had hard R ratings for violence.
”I don’t think it’s a cop-out at all,” said Bruce Snyder, the studio’s head of distribution. ”This is based on a video game that did have a bit of a younger audience. There’s a lot of action and violence, but most of it is creature to creature rather than creature to people.”
In limited release, the domestic drama We Don’t Live Here Anymore, starring Laura Dern, Naomi Watts, Mark Ruffalo and Peter Krause, opened strongly with $106 000 in just seven theatres. The film expands to more theatres this Friday.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday until Sunday at North American theatres, according to Exhibitor Relations.
1 Alien vs Predator, $38,25-million.
2 Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, $23-million.
3 Collateral, $16-million.
4 Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, $9,4-million.
5 The Bourne Supremacy, $8,3-million.
6 The Village, $7-million.
7 The Manchurian Candidate, $6-million.
8 Little Black Book, $3,7-million.
9 I, Robot, $3,6-million.
10 Spider-Man 2, $3,4-million. – Sapa-AP