Sci-fi thriller takes top spot in US box office

Jodie Foster teams up with Matt Damon in the science fiction thriller Science-fiction thriller "Elysium" took top spot in the North American box-office this weekend, beating out competition from raunchy Jennifer Aniston comedy "We're The Millers," estimates showed Sunday.
Starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, "Elysium" is set in a dystopian future where the poor have been left to inhabit a ruined Earth while the rich live on a luxurious space station.
The movie, written and directed by South African filmmaker Neil Blomkamp ("District 9"), earned 30.5 million US dollars, in its opening three days, estimated figures from box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations showed.
In second place was Aniston's R-rated comedy "We're The Millers," which stars the former "Friends" actress and Jason Sudeikis in a romp about a bogus family attempting to smuggle drugs into the United States from Mexico.
The film took $26.6 m over the three-day weekend, placing it just ahead of Disney's latest animated offering "Planes."
An effective spin-off of the hugely successful "Cars" franchise, "Planes" took $22.5 m to place third.
Fourth place was occupied by another debutant, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters", the latest adaptation based on the book series by Rick Riordan about a schoolboy who is in fact the son of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. The film took $14.6 m.
Last week's number one, the Denzel Washington-Mark Wahlberg action comedy "2 Guns" earned $11.1 m this weekend.
Sony's animated sequel "The Smurfs 2" was in sixth spot with $9.5 m, just ahead of Hugh Jackman's comic-book based blockbuster "The Wolverine. The latest big-screen adaptation to feature the claw-fingered "X-Men" character added another $8 m in its third week on release.
In eighth place was horror film "The Conjuring", the low-budget shocker which took $6.7 m. So far the movie has earned $120.7 m in four weeks, a phenomenal return for a film which cost a relatively modest $20 m to make.
Animated children's comedy "Despicable Me 2" was ninth with $7.4 m, as another sequel "Grown Ups 2" took 10th.
Rounding out the top 12 were Woody Allen's acclaimed drama "Blue Jasmine", with $2.5 m and animated children's flick "Turbo" with $2.3 m.




Source: AFP