A pervasive marketing campaign paid off for 20th Century Fox as its sci-fi thriller, Jumper, led in ticket sales during the extended President’s Day weekend. The pic earned approximately $31.7 million at the North American box office over the four-day period, easily topping Paramount’s CG-laden family fantasy flick, The Spiderwick Chronicles. Earning an estimated $24.4 million, Spiderwick debuted in second place, despite a slightly wider opening and much better reviews than Jumper.
Jumper and Spiderwick both racked up production budgets in the ballpark of $90 million. Based on the best-selling series of books by Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi, The Spiderwick Chronicles features a host of CG-animated characters and other effects created by Industrial Light & Magic and Tippett Studio. Jumper, an adaptation of the novel by Steven Gould, boasts pixel wizardry by Weta Digital, Hydraulx, Digital Domain, R!OT, Pixel Playground, Lola Visual Effects and Sandbox F/X.
Foreign box office is helping Jumper recoup production costs. It also opened as the top film overseas, raking in more than $28 million in 30 markets. In the states, Spiderwick performed well on IMAX screens, earning approximately 7% of its weekend gross in large-format screenings. According to IMAX Corp. the pic is also tracking well at international IMAX venues.
Buena Vista’s hip-hop dance movie Step Up 2: The Streets also opened in wide release over the weekend, earning a respectable $21.5 million for a moderately budgeted movie. The pic premiered at No. 3, ahead of the Warner Bros. adventure-comedy Fool’s Gold, which pulled in an estimated $15 million in its second week. Meanwhile, Universal’s romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe didn’t exactly make the best of a Valentine’s Day weekend opening. Despite mostly positive reviews, the movie debuted at No. 5 with $11.4 million.
