Christian Retailing

'Prince Caspian' debuts at No. 1 Print Email
Sunday, 18 May 2008 08:00 PM America/New_York

As expected, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian finished on top in its debut weekend-grossing an estimated $56.6 million from 3,929 theaters-but it was not a spectacular start, Variety magazine reported.

Prince Caspian also took in $20.7 million overseas, although the film will not have its full international release until later this month and in June.

The Disney and Walden Media action sequel took in less domestically in its opening weekend than The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which sold $65.6 million in North America in its debut weekend in December 2005, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The first "Narnia" tale grossed $745 million worldwide, including $291.7 million domestically, over its theatrical run.

But Disney expects the PG-rated Prince Caspian, based on the C.S. Lewis fantasy series, to do well in the box office over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. "This is a film that we think is going to play all summer long and it's got nothing but school holidays in front of it," Mark Zoradi, president of the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, told AP.

Reportedly made with a $100 million-plus budget, Prince Caspian-which received mostly good reviews-may have suffered from a glut of recent fantasy movies such as The Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Bridge to Terabithia.

"Prince Caspian looked the same, replete with its computer-generated battles and anthropomorphized animals," BoxOfficeMojo.com observed. "Despite the success of "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" series, it was unrealistic to expect Prince Caspian to exceed its predecessor as blockbuster franchises normally don't maintain interest. ... It's been two and a half years since the first Narnia, whereas Rings and Potter made audiences wait only a year for their second adventures," BoxOfficeMojo.com said.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader-the next movie in the "Narnia" series-is scheduled for May 7, 2010, a week after another sequel to one of this summer's big movies, Iron Man 2.