dolphin_tale

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — “Dolphin Tale” rose to first place in its second weekend of release, taking in $13.9 million at theaters in the U.S. and Canada for Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. studio.

The film unseated the 3-D re-release of “The Lion King,” which ranked No. 1 for the prior two weekends, and edged out four new movies, researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said today in an e-mailed statement. Walt Disney Co.’s “The Lion King” dropped to third with $10.6 million.

“Dolphin Tale,” based on a true story, follows a young boy’s effort to persuade scientists to create a prosthetic for a dolphin whose tail was amputated. The 3-D movie benefited from positive word-of-mouth after opening in third place last weekend, trailing the Brad Pitt baseball drama “Moneyball.” The film has collected $37.2 million in two weeks.

“Family films are a hot commodity right now, and this demonstrates that,” Jeff Bock, a film analyst for Exhibitor Relations in Los Angeles, said in a telephone interview.

“Dolphin Tale” features Nathan Gamble as a boy who finds the dolphin washed up on a beach, its tail infected after becoming entangled in a crab trap. Morgan Freeman co-stars as a prosthetics expert who creates the artificial tail. Harry Connick Jr. and Ashley Judd also are featured.

Finishing second was Sony Corp.’s “Moneyball” with $12 million. It’s the story of Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane’s effort to transform the budget-constrained ball club from also-rans into winners. The film, based on the book by Michael Lewis, co-stars Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The movie has taken in $38 million in two weeks, read full

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 8th, 2011 at 4:55 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.