娱乐英语新闻: "John Carter" fails to overthrow "The Lorax" as No. 1 in North America box office

LOS ANGELES, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Disney's big-budget sci-fi spectacular "John Carter" opened this weekend with bad-as- expectedly receipts, pulling in only 30.6 million U.S. dollars and failed to overtake Universal's "The Lorax" as the top grosser in the North America box office, according to preliminary studio estimates.

The sci-fi actioner, which costs 250 million dollars to make, raked in 9.8 million dollars on Friday when it debuted in 3,749 locations, which is three theaters more than "The Lorax," and took in 12.3 million dollars the following day. Both receipts were bad which were well expected before the release. According to Walt Disney Pictures, this is a heavily male-sewing film, with 63 percent of those who have seen the movie was male, and 59 percent of the audiences was older than 25 years old. The moviegoers who have watched it liked it, and gave it a CinemaScore of "B+".

The 3D locations accounted for 64 percent while IMAX 3D for 16 percent.

However, it is another story when talking about overseas market. The film, which is the live-action debut of "Finding Nemo" and " WALL-E" director/writer Andrew Stantonoff, was off to a great start with a 70.6 million dollar haul from 55 territories, which represented 80 percent of the market. Its worldwide opening is above the 100 million dollar threshold.

"John Carter" is adapted from Edgar Rice Burroughs' 11-volume " Barsoom" series of novels published in the first half of 20th century, which deals with the adventures of John Carter, the heroic protagonist of the volume.

Universal Studio's latest animated film "The Lorax," which was No. 1 over the last weekend, still holds the title with 39.1 million dollars in movie ticket receipts, marking a 44 percent decrease from last week. It is on track for a 122 million dollar haul over two weeks.

"Project X," Warner Bros. low-budget found footage comedy, was No. 3 with 11.6 million dollars, representing a 45 percent slip.

"Silent House," an R-rated thriller made by 'Open Water' filmmakers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, opened with 7.01 million dollars as No. 4. The film, which is based on the recent Uruguayan film "La Casa Muda," traces a young woman who finds herself sealed inside her family's secluded lake house. It has received a mix reception from critics, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes assigning it a 49 percent "rotten" rating. Audiences who has seen it gave it an "F" rating.

"Act of Valor," was fifth which pulled in seven million dollars.

Paramount's "A Thousand Words," an Eddie Murphy comedy-drama film left over from the DreamWorks days, opened in No. 6 with 6.4 million dollars in receipts. Murphy plays a fast-talking literary agent with a specialty in convincing Eskimos he has the best snow.

Rounding out the top 10 most popular films of North America this weekend were "Safe House" (5 million dollars), "The Vow" (4 million dollars), "This Means War" (3.8 million dollars), and " Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" (3.7 million dollars).