Forbidden Kingdom kicks Sarah Marshall’s butt

Movies News

By M&C Movie News Apr 21, 2008, 12:39 GMT

Lionsgate and the Weinstein Co.’s Forbidden Kingdom (which teams martial arts masters Jet Li and Jackie Chan) took in an estimated $20.9 million and knocked out the competition at the weekend box office – including Universal’s new Judd Apatow comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The film features a more family friendly PG-13 rating and opened in 3,151 theaters. Its marketing campaign has focused on the fact it is the first time Chan and Li have appeared on screen together, and the film’s visual effects.

Forbidden Kingdom appealed to younger males – which made up 58% of the film’s audience. The plot follows a teenager (Michael Angarano), who travels back to ancient China and joins a band of martial arts warriors fighting to save the legendary Monkey King.In Variety, Lionsgate president of distribution Steve Rothenberg stated: “It was a stroke of genius to pair Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Those are exactly the numbers we were striving for. We wanted to get the older martial arts crowd, but we also wanted the teenagers.”Forbidden Kingdom marked the eighth time in a row that a Lionsgate film has opened with a No.1 or No. 2 placing on the weekend box office totals. Lionsgate and TWC partnered on the martial arts film - which was financed by Relativity Media.Universal has also given hard marketing push to the R-rated Forgetting Sarah Marshall – which took in an estimated $17.3 million from 2,798 runs. The film claimed the No. 2 spot on its opening weekend.Sarah Marshall’s opening was better than Apatow’s previous two comedies (Drillbit Taylor and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), but fell short of some of his stronger films – such as Superbad, Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.The film received solid reviews and appealed to a female audience with 56% of the women under the age of 30. Universal was said to be happy with the film’s opening. Forgetting Sarah Marshall only cost $30 million to produce and the studio expects it to have a strong run on the big screen. The two films managed to give the declining box office a needed boost with weekend grosses up 9.1% over this time last year.Sony’s Prom Night claimed the No. 3 spot on the weekend box office with an estimated $9.1 million from 2,700 runs. The PG-13 friendly horror film has managed to take in $32.6 million in its first 10 days. Al Pacino’s new thriller 88 Minutes from director Jon Avnet opened in the No. 4 spot and took in an estimated $6.8 million from 2,168 locations. The film was released domestically by Sony, and has received poor reviews. It has already played overseas.The Ben Stein documentary “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” managed to make its way on the top 10 chart with a No. 9 placing thanks to its $3.1 million take from 1,052 runs. The film was marketed to conservative religious audiences and examines the belief science is attempting to suppress the discussion and teaching of intelligent design.Fox Searchlight and New Regency’s cop drama Street Kings dropped 68% in its second week. The Keanu Reeves-Forest Whitaker film earned an estimated $4 million from 2,469 runs with a No. 7 placing.