Thursday, April 24, 2008 'Forbidden Kingdom' tops Hollywood films
THE rare tandem of two magnificent Asian superstars soared high at the box office as they occupied the first spot of the top-grossing films in the US last weekend.
The film based on the reports at movieweb.com reached US$20.9 million ticket sales from its released last April 18.
The movie is about an adventure of American teenager transported back to the Ancient China for his mission to return an antique Chinese staff to its owner, Monkey King who played by Jet Li.
Action superstar Jackie Chan, meanwhile, played a drunken kungfu master named Lu Yan who will lead the teen on his quest and journey to hand back the staff to Monkey King.
The movie featured some scorching fight scenes from the two actors in a never before seen movie, starring the two stars who are both became famous with their martial arts and kung fu skills and overpowering stunts in their movies.
Bagging the second spot is Universal romantic comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," that arrived at US$17.3 million earnings.
Produced by Judd Apatow, who also the man behind the success of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up", it is a romantic disaster comedy movie about a nice guy's quest to grow up and get over the heartbreak of being dumped by his girlfriend who happens to be also a glamorous television star Sarah Marshall.
The "Prom Night," which occupied the No. 1 spot the previous weekend, fell to third with US$9.1 million, adding to its income with a total of US$32.6 million.
A horror, thriller movie about a senior student who thought she has been safe from a horror incident that happened years ago but little did she know that the killer from her past will appeared at her Prom Night killing the people surrounded her one by one.
Meanwhile, another award winning actor in his movie "88 minutes" took the No. 4 place with US$6.8 million. Al Pacino, in this movie, is a forensic psychiatrist and college professor who was given 88 minutes to solve his own murder case. This serial killer thriller movie is from Sony's TriStar Pictures.
Filling the No. 5 spot is the adventure film "Nim's Island" starring Jodie Foster. The island is a magical place ruled by a young girl's imagination that brought her back with her missing father. The movie's total earnings reached US$5.6 million.
"The Forbidden Kingdom" is not just an ordinary action packed film of Chan and Li. Viewers also considered it as a family-friendly movie that can be enjoyed by everyone. It was directed by Rob Minkoff and produced by Ryan Kavanaugh Casey Silver. Together with Chan and Li, others co-stars include Michael Angarano, Collin Chou, Yifei Liu. (JRDB/Sunnex)
