Wallace & Gromit top US box office
Monday, 10 Oct 2005 11:08
Terrible news about the fire, Gromit
The quintessentially British phenomenon that is Wallace and Gromit has proven to be exactly to the taste of our trans-Atlantic buddies, after the claymated duo topped the US box office.
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, took £9.1 million in its first week of release, an impressive £2.8 million more than its closest rival, Jodie Foster thriller Flightplan.
The film is Wallace and Gromit's first silver-screen outing, though it is not the first time their creator Nick Park has produced a feature-length animation – his last movie,
Chicken Run, actually took more in its first week than
Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Nevertheless, the irrefutable triumph in the US of the unashamedly English film will be pleasing to the makers, considering its success in the UK is all but assured.
The film, which stars the voices of Helena Bonham-Carter, Peter Sallis, Peter Kay and Ralph Fiennes, opens in Britain on Friday.
However, this may be the last time we see the inventor and his dog as we know them, as a fire broke out at Wallace and Gromit HQ on Monday. It is believed to have destroyed props and sets from the series.
Ten fire crews were unable to stop the flames from engulfing the Bristol headquarters of Aardman Animations, in which three floors collapsed.
Company spokesman Arthur Sheriff told
BBC News: "It couldn't have come on a worse day - we were supposed to be celebrating because the new film,
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, has debuted at the top of the US film chart.
"Instead this could be the complete opposite."
The rest of the US box office top five comprised Cameron Diaz's
In Her Shoes at three; Al Pacino's
Two For the Money at four and r'n'b flick
The Gospel at five.