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LOS ANGELES - Walt Disney's 3-D movie Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert topped movie box offices, raking in US$29 million for the biggest opening over a normally slow Super Bowl weekend, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
With professional football's championship game dominating the entertainment landscape, the 3-D movie of Cyrus' (aka Hannah Montana) 2007 singing tour brought teenage girls streaming into theaters with their parents, said Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group.
"We're looking at this and realizing we made a little piece of movie history," Zoradi said. "This has been a family movie, and we've had lots of parents exiting theaters saying, 'thank you because we couldn't get into any of her concerts.'"
Supernatural thriller The Eye, starring Jessica Alba, took the No. 2 slot at US and Canadian box offices with a US$13 million weekend. The No. 3 movie was romantic comedy 27 Dresses, starring Katherine Heigl, with US$8.4 million, according to industry tracker Media By Numbers.
Rounding out the top five were teen pregnancy comedy Juno at No. 4 with a weekend haul of US$7.5 million, bringing its total ticket sales to US$110 million. In the No. 5 position was last week's champ, action adventure Meet the Spartans, with US$7.1 million for the weekend and $28 million overall.
Hannah's huge hit
Cyrus, the teenage daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, portrays the title character of Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel cable TV program of the same name. Hannah leads a typical teenage life by day, but has a secret singing career on weekends. The show is a hit with young viewers.
The concert movie's No. 1 performance was even more important in Hollywood for several reasons.
Sales of "Hannah" tickets, whose prices varied but were higher than normal at theaters across the country, came from screenings in about 680 locations and grossed an average of nearly US$42,500 per theater, according to the Walt Disney Co. A typical No. 1 movie in wide release would open in about 3,000 theaters and average perhaps US$7,000 per theater.
Based on the opening weekend's popularity, Disney said it is extending the movie from what had been a limited run ending this Thursday. Now, theaters will be able to play the movie as long as they like, a Disney spokeswoman said.
Also, elevating the importance of the Hannah Montana movie is the idea that new digital 3-D movies are seen as a growing industry trend because theater owners want to put new types of entertainment in their venues so they can compete for audiences against DVDs, video games and the internet.
The format also allows live concerts like the Hannah Montana shows, or sporting events like football or basketball games, to be shown in theaters in 3-D. Promoters say watching events in this new 3-D format makes audiences feel like they are in the live venue.
For legions of Hannah Montana fans, that factor seemed to be especially important. Cyrus' concert tour late last year was a sell-out and among the hardest live act tickets to come by.
"These 3-D movies can really take you to a place you wouldn't normally go," said Michael Lewis, chief executive officer of the company Real D, whose 3-D technology is used in screening the Hannah Montana concert movie.
- REUTERS
