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Old William Shatner Main Discussion - Hugh Jackman's.... Wolverine,, Smashes Weekend Box Office

daisydownunder - May 04, 2009 - 03:18 AM
Post subject: Hugh Jackman's.... Wolverine,, Smashes Weekend Box Office

Hugh Jackman's X-Men Origins: Wolverine has slashed its way through a tsunami of horrid reviews, the swine flu scare and an internet piracy scandal to earn a whopping $US160 million ($A221 million) at cinemas across the world on the weekend.

Jackman, his wife Deborra-Lee Furness and business partner John Palermo are also set to pocket a significant slice of the box office loot.

The trio's production company Seed Productions co-produced the action sci-fi film, which stars Jackman as the Marvel Comic mutant Wolverine.

The box office result for the film, which cost a reported $US150 million ($A207 million) to make, is also another feather in the cap for Sydney's Fox Studios where much of the X-Men spin-off was shot.

More than half of X-Men Origins: Wolverine's global haul came from North America with $US87 million ($A120 million) in tickets sold, easily making it the number one movie in that market.

Jackman's homeland also came out in force to support him.

The movie earned $US5.7 million ($A7.86 million) on the weekend in Australia .

Jackman's Seed Productions and the Hollywood studio behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Twentieth Century Fox, benefited from a simultaneous worldwide release with it opening on 9,234 screens in 101 countries on the weekend.

In Australia , it was shown on 413 screens.

Jackman tirelessly promoted it around the world, hanging off a helicopter and sliding down a flying-fox at an event on Sydney's Cockatoo Island, embedding his hands in wet cement alongside icons John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe at a ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, sharing a coffee with a gushing Oprah Winfrey on her TV talkshow and spending $US4,300 ($A5,930) on breakfast for fans in Arizona who camped out overnight to catch the first screening.

The swine flu outbreak forced Jackman to cancel a promotional visit to Mexico City and it was feared concerns about catching the flu in theatres and the leak of an unfinished copy of the movie on the internet would cut into the box office take.

Jackman's likeability, confirmed by his applauded Oscar hosting performance in February, his recent confirmation as Sexiest Man Alive and the built-in audience following the success of the three previous X-Men film helped overcome a savaging by US critics.

However, X-Men Origins: Wolverine did not match last year's $US98 million ($A135.15 million) North American opening for Iron Man .

The New York Times called X-Men Origins: Wolverine "programmatically unmemorable, a hodge-podge of loose ends, wild inconsistencies and stale genre conventions" and the Chicago Sun-Times summed it up as "mayhem, noise and pretty pictures".

The arrival of Wolverine signals the first big studio movie for North America's lucrative (northern) summer box office season.

This week in the US and Australia the much-hyped Star Trek is released and in coming weeks Angels & Demons, Night at the Museum 2 and Terminator Salvation open.

Peter Travers, critic for Rolling Stone, suggested audiences bypass Wolverine and see Star Trek .

"Summer movies whimper to a start with the wheezing Wolverine, a transparent attempt to squeeze a faltering franchise for its last drop of box office juice," Travers wrote.

"It should work for at least a week, until Star Trek opens and blows it out of the water by showing how an origin story should be done."

Well done Hugh Smile

Daisy

vampyregirl - May 04, 2009 - 04:33 AM
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I can't wait to see this movie!!! Didn't have time the past couple of days.....sigh.... Won't have time tomorrow either. Must get a tire looked at and fixed so I don't have a blow-out on the highway!! Then I have to mow the lawn, and clean the carpet!!!! A woman's work is never done!!!!!!

Johnny_Turbo - May 04, 2009 - 05:43 PM
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I just saw Kate and Leopold on TV. I kinda like that guy. He seems like he's a good actor and a nice guy.

BWW - May 04, 2009 - 05:45 PM
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I like Hugh jackman, he seems to be a genuinely nice guy. I never got into the X Men movies but if I catch one on TV I always enjoy them. Maybe I'll make the effort to see this one in the cinema.

Graham2271 - May 04, 2009 - 11:33 PM
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BWW wrote:

I like Hugh jackman, he seems to be a genuinely nice guy. I never got into the X Men movies but if I catch one on TV I always enjoy them. Maybe I'll make the effort to see this one in the cinema.

Saw it on Friday BWW and thoroughly enjoyed it, in my opinion, it's the best of the X-Men movies so far, I can't wait for the DVD to come out, so yes, take yourself along to the cinema to see it, I promise you won't be dissapointed. Also, can't help but notice that Hugh Jackman looks a lot more like Jeffrey Hunter than Bruce Greenwood, may'be they got the wrong Aussie to play Captain Pike?

daisydownunder - May 05, 2009 - 12:25 AM
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Graham2271 wrote:

BWW wrote:

I like Hugh jackman, he seems to be a genuinely nice guy. I never got into the X Men movies but if I catch one on TV I always enjoy them. Maybe I'll make the effort to see this one in the cinema.

Jackman is way to big for the new Star Trek They are virtually unknows in the movie.

And yes he is a great guy has loads of time for people and he kind of always reminds me of Kevin Sorbo:) would love to see them as brothers in a movie:)

Daisy Smile

ASB - May 05, 2009 - 01:30 AM
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Pretty good result for an Aussie made movie. Its been a while since we had a few good movies to see.

vampyregirl - May 07, 2009 - 11:32 PM
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If you're a fan of Hugh Jackman---GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!! His nekked butt gets shown a few times!!!!!!

Seriously, I just saw it today! Good movie!!!! Except the part where the 2 dudes brought the 2 or 3 yr old kid to see the movie, and she kept trying to run around the theater. Then they kept talking..... Sigh.... Why me???? Every damn time I go to see a movie lately, I'm stuck with people that are chatter boxes!!!! BTW, not a movie I would take a small child to!!!! A lot of explosions and violence (but not bloody violence).

It just goes to prove what I know from my job: PEOPLE ARE STUPID!!!!!!

Anyway, go see the movie!!!! It's gooooooood!!!!!!

Debb - May 11, 2009 - 09:29 PM
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Graham2271 wrote:

BWW wrote:

I like Hugh jackman, he seems to be a genuinely nice guy. I never got into the X Men movies but if I catch one on TV I always enjoy them. Maybe I'll make the effort to see this one in the cinema.

Bruce Greenwood is Canadian.