Who could dare release yet another film the same week as The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King?
But the makers of Julia Roberts starring Mona Lisa Smile have done just that. They are confident that despite the royal reception The Return Of The King will get, Mona Lisa Smile will also laugh all the way to the bank.
Fans of the sci-fi adventure are going crazy over The King and the prospect of a five-day haul of $150 million looks possible, says Variety. But the Julia Robert starring Mona Lisa Smile could have a decent opening too.
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The King, which opened on December 17, is playing on roughly 7,500 screens across North America, while Julia Robert's film is being shown on 3,000 screens. Distributor Sony expects the movie to appeal to women of various demographic groups.
Though the film did not get Golden Globe nominations, trade buzz has it that it will appeal to women and older men, and turn out to be a moderate hit. Many box-office experts believe Mona Lisa Smile can have gross $18-$20 million over the weekend.
Directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral), the Julia Roberts-starrer focuses on an uplifting story that took place around five decades ago.
Mona Lisa Smile tells the story of how a art history teacher Katharine Ann Willis (Julia Roberts) in an American college in 1953 makes women realize their worth. While America is struggling with the notion of a fast changing world, the authorities at Wellesley College have no doubts or anxiety about any change at all. They want the women to be domestic creatures as they were before World War II. A passionate educator and firm believer in stronger women, Katharine takes over the establishment.
Over the years, Roberts has proved that she can carry even a weak film. She is one of the few female stars including Sandra Bullock whose popularity has just refused to plummet in the past decade.
The film also has an excellent cast of younger women including Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, Juliet Stevenson and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Meanwhile King, which grossed $34 million on its opening day including the midnight shows, could earn back its $100 million investment in just about 10 days from the box-office receipts in North America alone. Its box-office is expected to exceed $200 million.
Based on J R R Tolkien's deeply felt and highly imaginative saga of humans, wizards, elves, and hobbits coming together to destroy a ring of ultimate power and prevent evil forces from subjugating the middle earth, the three films have become worldwide phenomenon. The new film is expected to gross over $1 billion worldwide. It would then become the second film to achieve that distinction and yet it will be far behind the $1.8 billion gross of Titanic. Many Hollywood experts expect The King to capture top Oscars and demolish the myth that sci-fi and fantasy adventures are not Oscar worthy.
The three The Lord of the Rings films were shot successively in New Zealand by relatively less-known director Peter Jackson, who had been best known for the 1994 drama Heavenly Creatures which helped launch Kate Winslet's career. Made for about $4 million that film received good reviews and grossed about $20 million worldwide. The two Lord of the Rings movies have grossed over $2.5 billion in ticket and video (and DVD) sales worldwide.
When studios like Miramax that had the movie rights to The Lord of the Rings could not get the parent company Disney to fund the $300 million trilogy which was to be shot as one film, New Line stepped in about six years ago. Many in the industry thought that the studio, better known for horror and comedy films, was being too audacious. What if the first film in the series flops, some wondered.
Today, New Line, which is a sibling of Warner Bros., is a much-envied studio. And with the third film in the series getting the best reviews and expected to be the strongest hit, the envy could only soar.
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Who could dare release yet another film the same week as The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King? 
The three The Lord of the Rings films were shot successively in New Zealand by relatively less-known director Peter Jackson, who had been best known for the 1994 drama Heavenly Creatures which helped launch Kate Winslet's career. Made for about $4 million that film received good reviews and grossed about $20 million worldwide. The two Lord of the Rings movies have grossed over $2.5 billion in ticket and video (and DVD) sales worldwide. 