Automobiles come to life in Cars, the latest feature to roll off the Disney/Pixar assembly line. The film opens today to mostly positive reviews, though critics on the whole have been a bit harder on this one than any previous effort from the toon studio that brought us Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles. In the race for the box-office cup, Cars is out to lap 20th Century Fox’s remake of The Omen, which has earned just over $17 million since opening on Tuesday to take advantage to of the date (06/06/06).
Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker John Lasseter (Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life), Cars is set in a world populated by talking autos and revolves around Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie racecar who takes a detour to the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs and discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line. Voiced by Owen Wilson (The Wedding Crashers), Lightning slows down long enough to get to know the townspeople, including a 1951 Hudson Hornet voiced by film legend Paul Newman, a snazzy 2002 Porsche voiced by Bonnie Hunt and a rusty tow truck voiced by stand-up comic Larry The Cable Guy. Also lending their voices to the production are Tony Shalhoub, Michael Keaton, Cheech Marin, George Carlin, Katherine Helmond and John Ratzenberger, as well as racing superstars Richard Petty, Mario Andretti, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Darrell Waltrip and Michael Shumacher.
In the family film arena, Cars still faces competition from DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge, which has managed to retain a top-five slot since opening four weeks ago. To date, the latest CG feature from DreamWorks Animation has raked in nearly $118 million domestically and around $123.6 million worldwide. Hedge also has the third highest theater count with 3,527, behind Cars (3,985) and Fox’s X-Men: The Last Stand (3,680). Cars will screen in 210 digital projection venues.
Disney and Pixar are hoping its racing tie-in will help Cars challenge DreamWorks’ Shrek 2, which holds the toon record for the biggest opening weekend with $108 million, followed by Pixar’s own The Incredibles and Finding Nemo with $70 million each. Buena Vista Opens Cars in half a dozen markets overseas today, but will hold off the opening in the U.K., Spain, Germany and italy until after the World Cup soccer finals.
Opening in more limited release this weekend is director Robert Altman’s eagerly awaited A Prairie Home Companion, a fictional look at what goes on behind the scenes of humorist Garrison Keilor’s long-running, live public radio variety show. The Picturehouse release will meet arthouse competition from Paramount Classics’ An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s acclaimed global warming documentary which has managed to make more than $2 million in just a handful of venues. It opens in 45 more locations this weekend.
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