LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger is back.
The Austrian action hero grabbed the No. 1 slot at the
North American box office on Sunday as his long-awaited sci-fi
thriller "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" led the field
during the July 4 U.S. holiday weekend.
The third movie in the Terminator franchise sold $44.1
million worth of tickets for the Friday-to-Sunday period, and a
total of $72.5 million since opening on July 2.
The movie sets a new record for Schwarzenegger, 55, who has
not had a big hit in years. His previous best opening was
"Batman & Robin" with $42.8 million in 1997. The last
Terminator movie, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," opened with
$31.7 million in 1991 and $52 million in its first five days.
"The nervousness is gone. Finally the baby's born, and it's
in the public's hands," said Andrew Vajna, a producer of the
film, which was reportedly budgeted at between $150 million and
$175 million.
Vajna and partner Mario Kassar partnered on the project
with Intermedia, an affiliate of German film company IM
Internationalmedia AG, and they auctioned distribution rights
by territory. Warner Bros., a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc.,
picked up North American rights.
The bow for "Terminator 3" ranks as the second best for an
R-rated film after "The Matrix: Reloaded" which opened with
$91.8 million in May. Studios are increasingly shying away from
R-rated films, which require viewers under 17 to be accompanied
by an adult, because of tighter marketing restrictions.
Jonathan Mostow
directed "Terminator 3," which also stars Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and newcomer Kristanna Loken as an evil cyborg.
Schwarzenegger has said he was paid $30 million to star.
'BLONDE' BOMBSHELL
The top 10 contained two other new entries, which also
opened in theaters last Wednesday to get an early start on the
holiday moviegoing audience.
"Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde," a comedy starring
Reese Witherspoon as a fashionista who takes on the Washington
establishment, was No. 2 with $22.9 million for the weekend,
and $39.2 million for the five days. Its 2001 predecessor,
"Legally Blonde" sold $20 million in its first three days. Both
were released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
About 70 percent of the audience was female, and of those
62 percent were under 21, said Erik Lomis, MGM's president of
distribution. The film cost under $50 million, with Witherspoon
taking a $15 million salary.
The cartoon "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" flopped at
No. 6 with $6.8 million for the weekend and $10.0 million for
the five days.
The film, released by privately held DreamWorks SKG,
features the voices of such big names as Brad Pitt, Michelle Pfeiffer and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but was hampered by its use
of traditional animation techniques rather than the
computer-animated wizardry that has turned such films as
"Shrek" and "Finding Nemo" into blockbusters.
DreamWorks distribution President Jim Tharp was
disappointed but said he hoped the $60 million movie would do
well on home video.
Last weekend's champion, "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle,"
slipped to No. 3 with $14.2 million after losing 62 percent of
its audience -- the biggest drop in the top 10. The action
comedy's 10-day total rose to $67.2 million. It was released by
Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp.
Overall ticket sales fell for the fourth consecutive
weekend when compared with the year-ago period, according to
box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The top 12 films
earned about $127 million, down 9 percent from last year when
Sony's "Men in Black II" led the box office to a July 4 holiday
record with a $52 million three-day bow.
