The studio behind "
Naruto
DVD|Naruto" had plenty to laugh about as the film beat a pair of comedies
at the North American box office to take the No. 1 spot for the third straight
weekend, according to studio
Naruto
dvds issued on Sunday.
The animated film's strong staying power
and its
Naruto
box set weekend take of $25.3 million bodes
well for DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, which last month saw its share price dip
after the movie suffered a lower-than-expected
buy
Naruto dvd.
"Families seem to be the ones really
driving the
Naruto
dvd set and 'Shrek' being a great movie for
everyone to see together, that seems to be working very well for 'Shrek,'"
said Anne Globe, head of worldwide marketing at DreamWorks.
The raunchy comedy "
Naruto
on dvd" from producer Judd Apatow
claimed the No. 2 spot with $17.4 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and
Canada.
"It's very interesting that
Naruto
new release makes very responsibly budgeted
films so it bodes well for the overall success in theaters and
Dragon
Ball Z DVD Box set," said Nikki Rocco,
president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, the General Electric
Co-owned studio that released the film.
"
Dragon
Ball Z DVD| Dragon Ball Z," which cost about $40 million to produce, stars British actor
Russell Brand as a brash rock star and Jonah Hill as a record label intern who
must get him from
Dragon
Ball Z DVD collection to Los Angeles for a
concert date.
The romantic comedy "
Dragon
Ball Z DVDs," which studio Lions Gate
Entertainment Corp had declined to show for critics to avoid scathing reviews,
came in at No. 3 with $16.1 million in the United States and
Dragon
Ball Z complete DVD.
The movie, with a budget in the mid-$60 million
Dragon
Ball Z DVD set, stars Ashton Kutcher as a man
with a secret job as a killer, and Katherine Heigl as his unknowing wife.
OVERALL BOX OFFICE DOWN
The overall box office was about $125
Dragon
Ball Z on DVD, which was down a huge 25
percent from the same weekend a year ago, which saw $165.3 million in U.S. and
Canada ticket sales, said Paul Dergarabedian, head of tracking firm
Dragon
Ball Z new release Box Office.
The box office was down last weekend, too.
"We really have to hope that films
like '
Bleach
DVD and
Bleach' and 'The A-Team' (both opening Friday) with this totally 80's
weekend will save the day, will turn things around," he said.
Going into the weekend, box office watchers
had expected "
Bleach DVDs," which is distributed by Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures, to
best "Get Him to the Greek" and "Killers." Its strong
performance was only a 41.6 percent drop compared to the previous
Bleach
DVD box set.
DreamWorks' last animated film, "
Bleach
DVD set,"
also opened weakly but showed strong staying power by dominating the family
audience.
"Shrek" had competition for
Bleach
on DVD'
attention this weekend, as 20th Century Fox, a division of News Corp, debuted
the talking dog movie "Marmaduke." But it opened to only $11.3
million in the United States and Canada, placing at
Frasier
dvd| Frasier Frasier
dvd series.
"Shrek" has made $183 million in
the U.S. and
Frasier
complete dvd and $68.4 million
internationally, but it has yet to open in most of Europe and Latin America
because of a
Frasier
dvd season release designed to avoid losing
audiences to the World Cup.
"Sex and the City 2," in its
second
Frasier
dvds in theaters, suffered a sizable drop of
59 percent to $12.7 million. The poorly reviewed female-oriented comedy is from
Frasier
dvd set, a division of Time Warner Inc.
That performance placed "
Frasier
on dvd" one rank below the estimated
$13.9 million in U.S. and Canada ticket sales collected by the Walt Disney Co's
video game adaptation "Prince of Persia," which took the No. 4 spot
in its third weekend in international release and second weekend in the U.S.
and Canada.