英语文摘:"Tangled" edges out "Harry Potter 7" to rule box office

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Disney princess has edged out a young wizard in the latest battle for power at a time of doldrums which reined the post-Thanksgiving North America box office this weekend, ending the three-day weekend as the top grosser with 21.5 million dollars.

The latest retooling of the Rapunzel tale, "Tangled" has accumulated a projected haul of 96.5 million dollars in 12 days, and much of the sales come from the higher-than-ever 3-D theater houses in the United States and Canada, the North America box office authority said. It is expected to surpass the haul by "The Princess and the Frog," Disney's last Thanksgiving release which ended its screening with 104.4 million dollars in sales receipts.

As true as the past post-Thanksgiving cinema showed, this year' s North America box office was reigned by a drop of audiences which resulted in the dethronement of "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1." The seventh installment on the Harry Potter franchise has taken in 16.7 million dollars this weekend, a dramatic drop of 66 percent over the previous period, ending in No. 2 in the derby.

Oscar-winner Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott's latest collaboration, Fox's "Unstoppable" was third, with an estimated 6. 1 million dollars gate this weekend and four-week running total of 68.9 million dollars.

"The Warrior's Way," a modern martial arts western starring Korean actor Dong-gun Jang who plays an Asian warrior assassin forced to hide in a small town in the American Badlands, was the sole nationwide release in the Post-Thanksgiving period as Hollywood has traditionally shunned the timeframe to release new films. The New Zealand release is estimated to take in 1.12 million dollars at 1,622 theaters. It is produced by Barrie Osborne, who also produced "Lord of the Rings."

Fox Searchlight's highly-advertised "Black Swan" ballet drama opened in just 18 theaters, but grossed an average of 77,459 at each venue for a 1.4 million dollars opening weekend.

Rounding out this weekend's top ten are:

-- No. 4: "Burlesque," Sony/Screen Gems, 6.1 million dollars this weekend, 27 million dollars over two weeks;

-- No. 5: "Love And Other Drugs," Fox, 5.7 million dollars this weekend, 22.6 million dollars over two weeks;

-- No. 6: "Megamind," Paramount/Dreamworks, 5 million dollars this weekend, 136.7 million dollars over five weeks;

-- No. 7: "Due Date," Warner Bros., 4.2 million dollars this weekend, 91 million dollars over five weeks;

-- No. 8: "Faster," CBS Films, 3.8 million dollars this weekend, 18.1 million dollars over two weeks;

-- No. 9: "The Warrior's Way," a martial arts drama from Relativity Media, opening with 3 million dollars in sales this weekend; and

-- No. 10: "The Next Three Days," Lionsgate, 2.7 million dollars this weekend, 18.4 million dollars over four weeks.