'MATRIX' SCORES NO. 3 OPENING-DAY TAKE.Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer ``The Matrix: Revolutions'' earned a hefty $24.3 million during its first day in theaters, scoring the third-biggest Wednesday opening of all time, Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . announced Thursday. The impressive first-day numbers for ``Revolutions'' landed it behind only ``Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace'' ($28.5 million) and ``The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' ($26.1 million) for Wednesday openings. The third film in the ``Matrix'' 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. opened simultaneously on screens in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and around the world with international first-day grosses for the sci-fi epic totaling $18.8 million. ``We knew we had a loyal fan base and based on previews, knew the audience loved the movie,'' said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. president of distribution. ``The fans came out and we are very pleased not only with the box office but also with the exit polls.'' The film bowed in 3,502 theaters in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , adding up to more than 8,000 screens. There were more than 10,000 prints released internationally. Critical reviews for ``Revolutions'' have been mixed but as with most popular franchises, it didn't seem to matter as fans turned up in droves to showings Wednesday that began at 6 a.m. in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. to coincide with openings in other time zones around the world. The opening-day numbers bode bode 1 v. bod·ed, bod·ing, bodes v.tr. 1. To be an omen of: heavy seas that boded trouble for small craft. 2. well for the third film, which is now expected to have one of the biggest five-day opening-weekend grosses of all time. ``This is not just a good opening day, these are numbers that would be a good opening-weekend figure for a lot of films,'' said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. ``This is the kind of rarefied rar·e·fied also rar·i·fied adj. 1. Belonging to or reserved for a small select group; esoteric. 2. Elevated in character or style; lofty. rarefied Adjective 1. air this film lives in and it bodes very well for its opening-weekend prospects.'' The first film in the trilogy, ``The Matrix,'' was released in March 1999 and grossed $171.4 million domestically. Released in May 2003, ``The Matrix: Reloaded'' had the second-highest opening weekend of all time on its way to a domestic gross of $281.5 million. ``No matter how big your movies are, there's always a bit of nervous energy before it's released,'' Fellman said. ``We realize that the anticipation and the frenzy Frenzy Beatlemania term referring to the Beatles’ (rock musicians) immense popularity; manifested by screaming fans in the 1960s. [Pop. Culture: Miller, 172–181] Big Bull Market on the third could not be as strong as the second, considering there had been such a larger window between the first and second films.'' Still, Dergarabedian believes ``Revolutions'' could come close to the $91.7 million ``Reloaded'' earned on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of its first weekend. That film opened wide on a Thursday with selected showings at 10 p.m. Wednesday. ``Whether it can surpass 'Reloaded' remains to be seen,'' he said. ``But obviously this franchise has to be regarded as one of the top franchises in cinematic history if you combine the worldwide grosses and the 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. sales. We are talking about numbers that are 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, .'' Greg Hernandez, (818) 713-3758 greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com TOP WEDNESDAY OPENERS: 1. ``Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace'' ($28.5 million) 2. ``The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' ($26.1 million) 3. ``The Matrix: Revolutions'' ($24.3 million) 4. ``Jurassic Park III'' ($19 million) 5. ``Men in Black II'' ($18.6 million) Source: Exhibitor Relations Co. CAPTION(S): box Box: TOP WEDNESDAY OPENERS (see text) |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion