NEW LINE GETS TO BE 'KING' FOR A DAY FINAL CHAPTER RAKES IN $34.1 MILLION.Byline: Greg GREG Great Egg Harbor National Scenic and Recreational River (US National Park Service) Hernandez Staff Writer The record box-office performance expected of ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' began with the biggest Wednesday opening ever, an estimated $34.1 million in ticket sales, New Line Cinema reported Thursday. Die-hard fans of the 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. flocked to Tuesday midnight screenings in such large numbers that those shows alone accounted for about $8 million of the first-day gross, with many of the 2,100 midnight shows selling out. The final chapter of the ``Rings'' trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson Jackson. 1 City (1990 pop. 37,446), seat of Jackson co., S Mich., on the Grand River; inc. 1857. It is an industrial and commercial center in a farm region. and based on the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, is playing in 3,703 theaters and on more than 7,000 screens nationwide. Overall, it was the third-biggest opening-day gross ever, behind ``Spider-Man'' ($39.4 million) and ``The Matrix Reloaded'' (37.5 million). Pre-release tracking indicated that the film's first-day grosses would likely land between $30 million and $35 million. ``The anticipation and expectations were obviously very high, and we are extremely happy about this number,'' said Rolf Mittweg, New Line's president and chief operating officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. of worldwide distribution and marketing. ``Return'' is well on track to be the biggest grossing film in ``The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy, which began with 2001's ``The Fellowship fellowship Graduate education A post-residency training period of 1–2 yrs in a subspecialty–eg, hand surgery, which allows a specialized physician to develop a particular expertise that may have a related subspecialty board; fellowship time is often of the Ring,'' followed by last year's ``The Two Towers.'' ``The $30 million day is an exclusive club, and it makes you an instant blockbuster block·bust·er n. 1. Something, such as a film or book, that sustains widespread popularity and achieves enormous sales. 2. A high-explosive bomb used for demolition purposes. 3. ,'' said box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. ``It's rarified rar·i·fied adj. Variant of rarefied. Adj. 1. rarified - having low density; "rare gasses"; "lightheaded from the rarefied mountain air" rarefied, rare territory.'' No film had ever earned $30 million in a single day until 2001's ``Harry Potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: People
A year ago, ``Two Towers'' took in $27.5 million on its first day, on its way to a whopping 5-day gross of $102 million. With stellar reviews and positive word of mouth, the third film will likely surpass the 5-day performance of its predecessor. ``It's very hard to predict because we are dealing with a 3-hour-and-20- minute film,'' Mittweg said. ``We won't know at this point what the demand is for midnight shows, and the final weekend number will largely depend on that.'' The phenomenal first-day showing of ``Return'' is much-welcomed by the movie industry, which has slumped at the box-office several times this year and is trailing well behind last year's record number of ticket sales. ``We need this,'' Dergarabedian said, ``without question.'' Greg Hernandez, (818) 713-3758 greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): box Box: BIG WEDNESDAY Source: Exhibitor Relations Co. Jon Gerung/Staff Artist |
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