'RINGS' IN RECORD BOOK FANTASY GROSSES $18.2 MILLION ON FIRST DAY.Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer ``Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' ascended to Hollywood history in its opening day, drawing an estimated $18.2 million to become the third-biggest Wednesday opening ever. If New Line Cinema's estimates hold, ``Rings'' will rank behind only ``Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace'' ($28.5 million) and ``Jurassic Park III'' ($19 million). It will also hold the record for the biggest single-day December gross ever. ``We are thrilled with the response from fans and newcomers alike to come out on a Wednesday, in some cases midnight on Tuesday, to be the first to experience the film,'' said New Line's David Tuckerman, president of domestic theatrical distribution. The film, adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic about hobbits In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Hobbits are a fictional race related to Men. They first appear in The Hobbit and play an important role in the The Lord of the Rings story. This is a list of hobbits that are mentioned by name in Tolkien's works. , played on more than 5,700 screens in 3,359 theaters. Fans flocked to sold- out preview showings of the fantasy epic at midnight Tuesday. ``It's an impressive number and it's just the beginning,'' said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. ``You will get a real cross section for this film, from the built-in teen audience looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. action-adventure to the people who have read these books since they were published. There are those who want to see it because everyone else is - the water-cooler factor.'' Although the movie did not approach last month's $31.3 million opening- day gross of ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' that film opened on a Friday on 2,500 more screens. ``Rings'' also has a longer running time (two hours, 52 minutes) than ``Potter,'' making its opening day numbers all the more impressive. ``For `Lord of the Rings' to have this big of a Wednesday opening bodes very well for its box office potential for the weekend,'' Dergarabedian said. ``It essentially has a seven-day opening run through Christmas on Tuesday. That's a lot of time for the film to amass a lot of money.'' While ``Potter'' faced virtually no competition during its first few weeks, ``Rings'' will be going up against some heavy-hitters premiering this weekend, including the new Jim Carrey “James Carrey” redirects here. For the murder conspirator, see James Carey. James Eugene Carrey (born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian actor and comedian. film, ``The Majestic''; the kid movie ``Jimmy Neutron''; and high-profile holdovers such as Tom Cruise's ``Vanilla vanilla, a plant of the genus Vanilla of the family Orchidaceae (orchid family). Vines of hot, damp climates, most are indigenous to Central and South America, especially Mexico, but are now cultivated in other tropical regions. Sky,'' last weekend's box office champ, and ``Ocean's Eleven'' with its all-star cast. News of the strong opening-day ticket sales coincided with the announcement that ``Rings'' had been nominated Thursday for four Golden Globe Awards, including a nod for Best Motion Picture Drama and a nomination in the Best Director category for Peter Jackson. The film also opened internationally and grossed $11.5 million in 13 territories, breaking records in Belgium, Norway, South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. and Sweden. ``Fellowship of the Rings'' is the first installment of a 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. , with future films scheduled for holiday releases in each of the next two years. The series stars, among others, Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler Liv Tyler (born Liv Rundgren, on July 1, 1977, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York[1]) is an American actress and model. She is best known for her roles of Grace Stamper in Armageddon and Arwen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. , Cate Blanchett Catherine Élise Blanchett (born May 14, 1969), better known as Cate Blanchett, is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning Australian actress. She has also won various awards, most notably including two SAGs and two BAFTAs, making her one of a few actors who won all , Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee
Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE (born May 27, 1922) is an English actor known for his professional longevity and his distinctive basso delivery. and Sean Astin. |
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