|
Weekend Movies: Takes a 'Village' to Beat 'Bourne' LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Four major movies enter a crowded market on Friday led by director M. Night Shyamalan's mystery The Village which looks to scare Matt Damon and The Bourne Supremacy from its place atop box office charts. The Village from The Walt Disney Co., has the best chance at beating Bourne given its debut in 3,730 theaters. The next closest rival is Denzel Washington thriller The Manchurian Candidate in 2,867 theaters, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Inc. Comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is in 2,135 theaters and family film Thunderbirds is in 2,057 theaters. Paramount Pictures is behind Manchurian Candidate, while New Line Cinema is releasing Harold and Kumar and Universal Pictures backs Thunderbirds. After a rough year at box offices, Disney looks for a hit from Shyamalan who enjoys a strong following among the young men who make up moviegoings' core audience. His first film, The Sixth Sense, hauled in $294 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices and 2002's Signs racked up $228 million. "If you had to categorize (The Village), you could say it is a suspenseful, period love story," he told reporters in a recent interview. In the film, an isolated farming utopia in Pennsylvania has cut itself off from contact with the outside world and made a deal with creatures living in the surrounding woods: you don't bother us, and we won't bug you. But when Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) tests this rule, the creatures begin an assault on the town. He, his young lover, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) and all the townsfolk are in peril. (...) |