'Just Married' has an extended honeymoon

While Kangaroo Jack, the comedy about two friends and a kangaroo, hopped to the bank with a delightful estimated haul of $17.7 million and became the highest grossing movie over the weekend in North America, the teen comedy Just Married continued with its honeymoon. Slipping by just about 30 per cent from the previous week, it grabbed about $12.4 million, and though it slid from the top to the third position, it has grossed $34 million and is on its way to becoming one of the most profitable films in recent months. For Fox, which is expecting at least an $80 million gross, the comedy will help to partially erase the bad memories of the big budget sci-fi movie Solaris, starring George Clooney, that made just about $20 million.

Whether the Martin Lawrence comedy National Security, which opened to decent but unspectacular numbers at $15.7 million, has strong legs will be seen in the next two weeks. A mismatched cop adventure comedy, the film pairs a rebellious former police officer (Lawrence) with another former police officer (Steve Zahn) as reluctant partners. Most of the reviews were negative with some reviewers calling the movie brutally unfunny. But a few praised Lawrence.

Among the movies that added more theatres last week, Chicago, which won several Golden Globes, including one for best comedy/musical, danced to $8 million even though it is in less than 600 movie houses. The film, which has grossed an impressive $27 million in limited release, is steadily adding more theatres with each passing week. A favourite with the critics and audiences, it could be on more than 2,000 screens early next month, in anticipation of a slew of Oscar nominations. The film also brought Rene Zellwegger a Golden Globe for the best actress in the comedy/musical category.

The more complex drama revolving around three women, The Hours, is also expected to garner many Oscar nominations. It has won the Golden Globe nod for best picture in the drama category, apart from an award for Nicole Kidman in the same category. The movie, based on a Pulitzer Prize-winner of the same name, also stars Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. It has grossed an encouraging $7.4 million so far in limited release, with about $4.6 million of it clocked last weekend.

The hugely popular sci-fi drama The Two Towers is still a big draw. With a weekend gross of about $11 million, it has grabbed about $299 million and is on its way for an awesome $350 million haul, about $20 million more than what its predecessor grossed.

The Martin Scorsese-directed epic, Gangs of New York, slipped from the top 10 chart to the 11th position. But the movie, which fetched for Scorsese a Golden Globe, still looted a decent $4 million and is headed for $75-$80 million, with bigger loot to come from overseas. Leonardo DiCaprio was left on the top 10 chart with his other hit, Catch Me If You Can, which also toplines Tom Hanks. The Steven Spielberg-directed comedy adventure grossed $11 million, with its total reaching $135 million.