Video game sales may be outperforming box office receipts these days, but the two industries do tend to mesh with favorable results, as evidenced this past weekend by the No. 1 debut of Universal’s Doom. Still, audiences didn’t exactly come out in droves to see star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or any other Hollywood luminaries this frame, resulting in a weak opening for the $60 million vfx-laden sci-fi shoot ’em up and its fellow openers.
Doom earned an estimated $15.3 million. Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (Cradle 2 the Grave, Exit Wounds) and featuring digital effects work by Framestore CFC and Double Negative, the action chiller is based on Microsoft’s popular first-person shooter that has marines fighting genetic mutants in a research facility on the planet Mars. The film fared better than other recent game-to-screen adaptations, namely helmer Uwe Boll’s Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead, which only mustered worldwide grosses of $6.4 million and $13.8 million respectively. With blockbuster king Peter Jackson involved as exec producer, Universal’s cinematic treatment of Microsoft’s Halo promises to prove a more financially rewarding game adaptation when it debuts in 2007.
Moviegoers largely ignored critics and chose Doom over better-reviewed newcomers Dreamer from DreamWorks and Oscar buzzer North Country from Warner Bros., both based on true stories. Released in about a thousand fewer theaters than Doom, Dreamer, a girl-and-her-horse story starring Dakota Fanning, took second place with an estimated $9.3 million. Meanwhile, the Charlize Theron legal drama, North Country, got off to an even slower start with around $6.4 million in the No, 5 spot.
Last week’s champ, Sony/Revolution Studios’ remake of The Fog, rolled out of contention in its sophomore week, dropping to fourth place with an estimated $7.3 million. After displacing DreamWorks Animation’s and Aardman Animations’ Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Fog slipped behind the clay-animated feature, which is holding strong at No. 3 with approximately $8.7 million for the weekend and a three-week domestic total of roughly $44 million.
Since opening in the U.K. last weekend, Wallace & Gromit has earned an estimated $29 million overseas, bringing its cumulative take to around $70 million. Buoyed by strong word-of-mouth, the animated comedy has managed to hold onto a good percentage of its audience week after week, and is expected to stick around through the holiday season. With its worldwide gross soon to surpass the $100 million mark and home video looking favorable, there’s a good chance that we’ll be seeing more of bumbling British inventor Wallace and his four-legged pal, Gromit, on the big screen, especially if upcoming DreamWorks Animation efforts Over the Hedge and Flushed Away fail to raise franchise tent poles.
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