`LORD' OF THE SCREENS EPIC TALE RINGS UP SUPERLATIVE FIRST DAY AT BOX OFFICE.Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer ``The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' recorded the biggest single- day December gross and the second-highest Wednesday opening ever, ringing up an astounding a·stound tr.v. a·stound·ed, a·stound·ing, a·stounds To astonish and bewilder. See Synonyms at surprise. [From Middle English astoned, past participle of astonen, $27.5 million in its box office bow, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. figures released Thursday. New Line Cinema's ``Two Towers'' opened on more than 6,633 screens and in 3,600 theaters. Eager fans of the series held ``line parties'' this week at various Los Angeles-area theaters in order to be among the first admitted to sold-out preview 12:01 a.m. showings of one of the year's most highly anticipated movies. ``Two Towers'' easily outpaced last December's opening-day gross of $18.2 million for ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,'' the first chapter in a planned trilogy A company founded in 1979 by Gene Amdahl to commercialize wafer scale integration and build supercomputers. It raised a quarter of a billion dollars, the largest startup funding in history, but could not create its 2.5" superchip. adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy series of books. ``It is astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. , and we are extremely pleased,'' said Rolf Mittweg, New Line's president and chief executive of distribution and marketing. ``It bodes very well for 'Two Towers' to outgross 'Fellowship.''' Heading into the weekend, ``Two Towers'' is expected to easily rule over a trio of other new wide releases set to hit theaters Friday: the Martin Scorcese-directed drama ``Gangs of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ,'' the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock bullock a mature castrated male cattle destined for meat production or draft. comedy ``Two Weeks Notice'' and the animated ``The Wild Thornberrys.'' ``It's going to be a huge weekend overall, but the Wednesday gross of `Two Towers' indicates that there is obviously a tremendous amount of interest in this film,'' said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. ``To me, this is this generation's `Star Wars.' It has that level of excitement. The first movie brilliantly created a situation where you had to see the second one. People just couldn't wait for the year to go by to see the next film, and the grosses reflect that.'' Mittweg attributes some of the increased interest in the franchise to the popularity of the home video version of the first film which hit stores this fall in several different editions including a five-disc DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. gift set. ``We shipped 35 million DVDs and VHS (Video Home System) A half-inch, analog videocassette recorder (VCR) format introduced by JVC in 1976 to compete with Sony's Betamax, introduced a year earlier. copies around the world, so we obviously attracted new fans to the series, and this added to the result,'' he said. New Line's report of the robust first-day grosses for the film coincided with news that ``Two Towers'' had been nominated nom·i·nate tr.v. nom·i·nat·ed, nom·i·nat·ing, nom·i·nates 1. To propose by name as a candidate, especially for election. 2. To designate or appoint to an office, responsibility, or honor. for a pair of Golden Globe Awards Thursday morning: best motion picture-drama and best director (Peter Jackson). The first film received 13 Academy Award nominations last year including best picture and won four awards in technical categories. ``Fellowship'' went on to gross $313.4 million domestically and was the second highest-grossing film released in 2002, finishing behind ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' which took in $317.6 million. This time, the second chapter of the ``Rings'' franchise looks to surpass the gross for this year's Potter entry ``Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' which is has grossed $222.6 million to date but is quickly losing momentum. ``From now on, it's obviously now about longevity,'' Mittweg said. ``We need to make sure we reach our ultimate goals here.'' The final film in the trilogy, ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' will be released in December 2003. The three films were shot continuously over a year-and-a-half span in New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. . CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Actor Viggo Mortensen co-stars in New Line Cinema's ``The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,'' which opened Wednesday in 3,600 theaters and made $27.5 million its first day. |
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