LOS ANGELES – “The Wolverine” slashed monsters and minions to debut atop the weekend box office.
The Fox film featuring Hugh Jackman’s sixth turn as the claw-wielding superhero opened with $55 million in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Additional Photos
Last weekend’s top movie, Warner Bros.’ low-budget horror “The Conjuring,” slipped to second place, adding another $22.1 million to its take.
“Despicable Me 2” was in third with $16 million. The Universal animated sequel, with its cast of cute, yellow minions, has made more than $600 million worldwide since it came out four weeks ago.
“The Wolverine,” which is set in Japan and features an international cast, earned another $86.1 million overseas.
The film’s opening-week take surpassed the $120 million it cost to make, said Chris Aronson, Fox’s head of domestic distribution.
“It’s a huge opening for the clawed one,” he said. “It played equally well from Maine to Maui.”
Another Fox film, the animated snail-racing tale “Turbo,” was in fourth place with $13.3 million.
Adam Sandler’s “Grown Ups 2” followed with $11.5 million.
Woody Allen’s latest, “Blue Jasmine,” enjoyed a stellar opening of its own, though on a much smaller scale. Starring Cate Blanchett, the film opened in just six theaters but still collected $612,767.
“It’s one of the biggest opening per-theater averages ever for a non-animated film,” said Paul Dergarabedian of box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
‘Parenthood’ actor ‘proud’ he spoke out
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – It got a little awkward during NBC’s “Parenthood” panel at the Television Critics Association summer press tour when Craig T. Nelson was asked about whether he regrets making recent comments about the network not supporting the show.
Last March, Nelson was quoted as saying NBC was “out of it” and didn’t do enough to promote the series.
On Saturday Nelson said, “You get associated with a show that you love and a show that you believe in and a cast that’s just extraordinary and you get frustrated with the fact that it doesn’t seem to be honored the way that you feel it should be.” Nelson went on to say he was “proud” of speaking out.
The season premiere is Sept. 26.
– The Associated Press
Copy the Story Link
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.