Dancing penguins beat James Bond at box office

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

LOS ANGELES, Nov 20 (Reuters) Where James Bond villains Goldfinger and Blofeld failed, a group of cartoon penguins got the better of Agent 007 in an unusually tight race at the weekend box office in North America.

According to studio estimates issued yesterdy, the animated tale ''Happy Feet'' earned 42.3 million dollars during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada, while the latest James Bond movie ''Casino Royale'' pulled in 40.6 million dollar.

The data were provided by the films' respective studios, Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros and Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures. Some other studios, using their own calculations, said the margin was considerably narrower and that Bond could win out when final data are released on Monday. Columbia agreed that the difference could be slimmer, but conceded the fight to ''Happy Feet.'' The cartoon, revolving around singing and dancing emperor penguins, was directed by Australian filmmaker George Miller, the producer of the ''Babe'' and ''Mad Max'' films. Warner Bros. split the costs equally on the 100 million dollar project with Australian entertainment company Village Roadshow Ltd, and the two will share any profits.

The film features the voices of Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams and the late ''Crocodile Hunter'' Steve Irwin.

Some box office prognosticators had predicted ''Happy Feet'' could reach the million range, but Warner Bros. distribution president Dan Fellman said the 40 million dollar threshold was ''the magic number for us.'' With the US Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday, the studio expects family moviegoers to sustain ticket sales.

''Casino Royale,'' the first outing of Daniel Craig as the suave superspy, also earned 42.2 million dollar outside the United States and Canada. The biggest markets were Britain (25.6 million dollar) and Russia (3.7 million dollar).

The domestic opening was down considerably from the 47 million dollar bow of the previous Bond film, 2002's ''Die Another Day,'' which ended up with 161 million dollar. But Columbia said the opening compared favorably with Pierce Brosnan's 007 debut ''GoldenEye,'' which started with 26.2 million dollar in 1995 and finished with 106 million dollar. (Sales are not adjusted for ticket price inflation.) The film's openings in the coming week include Germany, France and Spain. Bond arrives in Japan on December. 1 ''Casino Royale'' is a co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc, a closely held firm in which Sony has a stake.

After two weeks at No 1, ''Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'' fell to No. 3 with 14.4 million dollar. The mock documentary, starring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as a cluelessly offensive, oversexed TV reporter from Central Asia, has earned 90.5 million dollar to date. It was released by Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

REUTERS DKS PM0426

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