“Beverly Hills Chihuahua’s” Chloe has become America’s favorite pet pooch,
dominating the new drama from Academy Award favorites Russell Crowe and
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Body of Lies.”
Ironic? Plenty!
“Beverly Hills
Chihuahua” was released two weeks
ago and promptly trotted to the top of the North American box office, with a
proud $29 million in ticket sales. The Disney family film beat serious
competition such as DreamWorks/Paramount thriller “Eagle Eye” starring Shia
LaBeouf, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” starring Michael Cera and Kat
Dennings and a new romance with Richard Gere and Diane Lane, “Nights in
Rodanthe.”
Interestingly enough, “Chihuahua” stayed prettily on that high
perch the following weekend as well, perhaps managing to bruise the egos of
director Ridley Scott and A-list actors Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Crowe and DiCaprio teamed up for political thriller “Body of
Lies,” Scott’s adaptation of David Ignatius’ 2007 spy thriller of the same
name. Film critics had mixed reviews for it and Rotten Tomatoes listed a
freshness rating of little over 50%.
“Chihuahua”
fared no better on the film review aggregator, with a modest 40% freshness
rating yet it managed to bring far more moviegoers into theaters. Drew
Barrymore lends her voice to the lead character, a pampered pooch named Chloe who
joins her mistress on a vacation to Mexico and gets lost. The pet is adored
by a fellow Chihuahua
named Papi, voiced by George Lopez and friends with a German shepherd named
Delgado, voiced by Andy Garcia. There’s a bad guy as well – pardon that, dog –
evil Doberman El Diablo, voiced by Edward James Olmos.
The live-action flick earned another $17.5 million this past
weekend, which brings its domestic total to $52.5 million. Add to that
enthusiastic moviegoers abroad and the stylish canine heroine has brought
Disney more than $62 million.
Second place went to new release “Quarantine,” released by
Screen Gems, a Sony Corp. unit. The zombie horror took in $14.2 million.
Warner Bros.’ “Body of Eyes” settled for the third position
with $13.1 million on its opening weekend, prompting Dan Fellman, the studio’s
domestic distribution president, to confess he was “a bit disappointed” with
the result.
“Body of Lies” had a promising premise, what with Scott and
Crowe having previously collaborated on the 2000 epic film “Gladiator,” which
earned thirteen Academy Award nominations and took home the Oscar for Best
Picture and Best Actor (Crowe), among others.
The remaining competition fared even worse, with Universal
Pictures’ football drama “The Express,” starring Rob Brown, Charles S. Dutton
and Dennis Quaid, taking in $4.7 million at No. 6 and 20th Century Fox’s “City
of Ember,” starring Academy Award nominee for Best Actress Saoirse Ronan (among
the youngest at age 14), opening at No. 10 with $3.2 million.
