Cavemen comedy ‘The Croods’ clubbed its rivals over the weekend to claim top spot at the North American box office.
The Dreamworks animated feature made $44.7m (£29.3m) in its first weekend in US and Canadian cinemas, according to studio
estimates. The Croods started out eight years ago as a co-production with British animators Aardman, scripted by Monty
Python's John Cleese. Dreamworks took over the project - originally titled Crood Awakening - when Aardman's five-film deal
was curtailed after just two productions with the US studio. Featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage and Emma Stone, the
film tells of a prehistoric family who encounter danger and strange new creatures when they are forced to quit their cave.
LOS ANGELES, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Dreamworks Animation has proved that it could still strike gold at the North America
box office after parting ways with distributor Paramount Pictures, as Sunday estimates showed that its latest release,
"The Croods," opened as the top-grossing film over the weekend.
The computer-animated comedy/adventure about a prehistorical family, featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds
and Emma Stone, opened with an estimated 44.7 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales, finishing at No. 1. The feat beat
analysts' pre- release estimated opening of 39 million dollars, and helped bring a bumper weekend to Hollywood.
The PG-rated family comedy, which was made with at least 135 million dollars, nabbed 11.6 million dollars in ticket
sales when it opened at 4,046 theaters in the United States and Canada on Friday. The good opening was followed by an
18.9-million-dollar haul on Saturday, putting the piece along the way to the top.
The first DreamWorks Animation computer-animated film to be distributed by Fox, "The Croods" was warmly received by the
audience, and earned itself an "A" CinemaScore. Seventy-nine percent of the moviegoers liked it, according to reviews
aggregator Rottentomatoes.com, while merely 51 percent of critics were positive toward it. The upcoming Easter holiday
and a lack of animated competition in the next few weeks should tide the comedy over during the box office derby.
