娱乐英语新闻："Wall-E" tops box office as Hollywood summer juggernaut keeps rolling

LOS ANGELES, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Pixar Animation's sci-fi robot romance "Wall-E" opened this weekend with 62.5 million U.S. dollars at the top of box office in North America, as Hollywood's summer revenues keep growing to take advantage of economic woes.

    "Wall-E" tells the love story of a lonely robot who was left behind on Earth to clean up trash when humans abandoned the over-polluted planet around 2700. He falls in love with a girl robot sent by humans from the space orbit to evaluate the situation at their home planet many years later.

    Pixar continued its perfect track record at movie theaters as "Wall-E" became the ninth consecutive No. 1 film at box office by the Disney unit.

    Meanwhile, Universal's thriller "Wanted" starring Angelina Jolie as a cold-blooded assassin also debuted to strong business with 51.1 million dollars, according to preliminary box office figures released Sunday.

    And the strong box office performances of "Wall-E" and "Wanted" helped keep the Hollywood summer juggernaut rolling higher.  

The animated character Wall-E is shown in a scene from the film "Wall-E". The film features dystopian landscapes, social commentary and a lack of conventional dialogue that are rare under the Walt Disney Co. banner, but it sticks to Pixar's basic themes of love, loyalty and friendship.

The 12 top-selling films took in 179.2 million dollars collectively this weekend, up 22 percent from the same weekend last year and representing the fifth consecutive up weekend for Hollywood after the lucrative summer season kicked off on May 2, according to Los Angeles-based tracking firm Media By Numbers.

    Movie industry analysts say that the sluggish U.S. economic and soaring gas prices may eventually become a boon to Hollywood, as more people tend to see movies and avoid traveling or other expensive entertainment like sports events and concerts.

The animated character "Wall-E" is shown in this undated publicity photo released to Reuters April 23, 2008 in a scene from the Disney/Pixar film of the same name

    Last week's box office leader, Warner Bros' spy comedy "Get Smart" slipped to No. 3 with estimated 20 million dollars over the weekend, followed by Dream Work Animation's "Kung Fu Panda" and Universal's "The Incredible Hulk" with 11.7 million and 9.2 million dollars respectively.