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French director Mathieu Kassovitz’s French-American sci-fi actioner Babylon A.D. (West) based on a bestselling novel by Maurice G. Dantec, opened successfully in the CIS. The film, which stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh and Gerard Depardieu topped the box office chart, grossing $3,006,990 from 480 screens and becoming the 100th film this year to gross more than $1 million. Its per-screen average – $6265 – was the best among the films of the week.
Another actioner with elements of a dystopian future, Novaya Zemlya (Nashe Kino), starring Alexander Melnik, Konstantin Lavronenko, Marat Basharov, Ingeborge Dapkunaite and Sergei Zhigunov (production budget – $12 million) debuted in third place, grossing $931,416 in its first four days from 376 screens, for a five-day total (it was released on Wednesday) of $940 141. In the next line down was another new film, Space Chimps (Pyramida), the 300 screens of which fed $754,682 into its coffers in four days.
There were a total of five new films in the chart in the week under review. In 18th place was Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai’s Ashes of Time Redux (CP Classic), a re-edit of his own 1994 film Ashes of Time. On four screens, the film, which starts Leslie Cheung and Maggie Cheung, was able to gross $14,451. The Franco-Italian drama Black Sun (Russky Reportazh), starring Valeria Golino and directed by renowned Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, had to make do with 26th place, with a result of $4,331 from two screens.
Sandwiched between the two dystopian futures Babylon A.D. and Novaya Zemlya was Alexander Aja’s horror film Mirrors (20th Century Fox CIS), which sustained high grosses. Losing only 18% compared to its opening weekend, this Kiefer Sutherland vehicle put $956,015 onto its account and jumped from second place to fourth. Its 11-day total was $2,818,272.
The Dark Knight (Caro Premier), which was in the top slot the last two weeks, careened five spots down, having grossed only $553,815 (a 68% drop) from 332 screens in its third weekend. Nevertheless, the film is approaching an $8 million gross; its 18-day total was $7,997,280.
Total CIS box office in the last weekend of the summer (August 28-31) was $8,551,269, which was 7.3% more than the box office figure for the previous week. |
