Chicago sets BO record for Miramax

Oscar-winning hit Chicago has set a box-office record for Miramax.

The studio had invested $50 million in the film, after okaying the creative team led by scriptwriter Bill Condon and director Rob Marshall.

Miramax, an arm of Walt Disney Co, announced April 15 that Chicago, starring Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger and Queen Latifah, with its $157.1 million gross in North America, has overtaken the studio's other surprise hit, Scary Movie.

Based on Bob Fosse's smash hit musical, Chicago is a feisty film about how women on death row in Chicago beat the system. It also takes a stab at media manipulation; its tagline: If you can't be famous, be infamous.

Apart from winning Best Picture Oscar, Chicago won Best Supporting Actress for Zeta-Jones. She plays a glamorous, wily woman who murders her philandering husband and seems to have her splashy lawyer, played by Gere, in the palm of her hand.

Released 2000, Scary Movie, which cost about $20 million, earned $157 million in North America. It beat the record of another Miramax surprise hit, Good Will Hunting (Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck), the 1997 drama which seized $137 million at the box-office.

Good Will Hunting was also an Oscar winner, fetching the Supporting Actor nod for Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Damon and Affleck.

The first musical to win Best Picture Oscar since the 1968 Oliver!, Chicago began its run in a handful of cities and expanded its theatre count week after week, blessed by favourable reviews and strong word-of-mouth.
 
Now in its 16th week, Chicago grossed $3.2 million in about 2,000 theatres over the weekend and is expected to conclude its North American run with at least $170 million.