英语文摘:Thriller "Knowing" tops weekend box office in N. America

LOS ANGELES, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Nicolas Cage sci-fi thriller "Knowing" topped the box office this weekend at U.S. and Canadian theaters, generating about 24.8 million dollars in its North American debut, according to preliminary figures released Sunday.

"Knowing," a Summit Entertainment release, is a tale of an astrophysicist who races to save the world after knowing an prophecy of doomsday by decoding a series of numbers.

This photo shows the poster of sci-fi thriller "Knowing". Nicolas Cage sci-fi thriller "Knowing" topped the box office this weekend at U.S. and Canadian theaters

    Two other new releases, Paramount's comedy "I Love You, Man" and Universal's spy thriller "Duplicity," which co-starrs Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, were in the second and third places, with 18 million and 14.4 million dollars respectively, said Los Angeles-based box office tracker Media By Numbers.

    Last week's box office leader, Disney sci-fi thriller "Race to Witch Mountain" fell to No. 4 with 13 million dollars in its second weekend, followed by Warner Bros.' superhero film "Watchmen" with 6.7 million dollars in its third weekend.

    Hollywood's total domestic box office over the weekend was about 5 percent lower than that in the same frame last year, representing the second down weekend in a row this year, after the gross was down about 17 percent last week.