娱乐英语新闻:"Jack The Giant Slayer" opens as top grossing film in North America box office

LOS ANGELES, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Fantasy films have traditionally been a real draw to families as the latest film in the line opened atop the North America box office over the weekend.

"Jack The Giant Slayer," a fantasy and adventure film from Warner Bros./New Line, debuted at 28 million U.S. dollars in 3,535 locations, which is basically in line with the pre-release anticipation from executives. The revenue is 7 percent softer than "John Carter" (30.18 million dollars) which hit the screen this time last year. Considering that the fantasy film is made at 195 million dollars, this is not a very good sign for the film to made the ends meet. However, the PG-13 rated film is regarded as a draw to family audiences, and it will probably pick up the steam in the weeks to come.

Based on a pair of popular fairy tales, "Jack the Giant Killer" and "Jack and the Beanstalk," the "X-Men" and "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer helmed flick follows a young farmer who leads the expedition to rescue a princess from a race of giants after inadvertently opening a gateway to their world. This is a slightly male-skewing film, as 55 percent of the audiences was men and 56 percent over 25 years old. Moviegoers who have seen it assigned a "B+" CinemaScore to it.

Released in both 2-D and 3-D, the film also rolled up 3.37 million dollars from 317 IMAX venues, or 12 percent of the total Friday-Sunday gross.

"Identity Thief," the Universal R-rated comedy which has been in theaters for 4th week, slipped to second place, raking in 9.7 million dollars in ticket sales. The Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy starrer is on pace to gross 107.4 million dollars.

A pair of debuting films occupied the third and fourth slots: " 21 And Over" with 9 million dollars in estimated sales, and "The Last Exorcism Part II" with 8 million dollars in receipts. The movies received "B" and "C-" CinemaScore ratings from moviegoers, respectively.

Rounding out the top 10 most-popular movies in North America this weekend were "Snitch" (7.7 million dollars), "Escape From Planet Earth" (6.7 million), "Safe Haven" (6.3 million), "Silver Linings Playbook" (5.9 million), "A Good Day To Die Hard" (4.5 million), and "Dark Skies" (3.6 million).