“Max Payne” marked a successful transition from video game star to hero of the silver screen as the film debuted atop the North American box office, preliminary figures showed Sunday.
Fox’s noir, fantasy-tinged movie, based on the best-selling video game and starring Mark Wahlberg as a tragedy-stricken undercover New York cop hell-bent on revenge, racked up 18 million dollars at the weekend, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.
Payne knocked the pooches of “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” off their number one perch. The Walt Disney film about a pampered pup forced to fend for herself on Mexico’s mean streets slipped to second place, fetching 11.2 million dollars.
Buzzing into third place in its debut weekend was “The Secret Life of Bees,” a sweet story of a young white girl (Dakota Fanning) taken in by three African-American sisters. The film, an adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s best-selling book, took in 11 million dollars.
Director Oliver Stone’s hotly anticipated “W.” biopic of the life of US President George W. Bush — also making its debut this weekend — was closely behind in fourth, earning 10.5 million dollars.
Slipping one notch to fifth, with a 7.3-million-dollar take, was “Eagle Eye,” a futuristic thriller starring young Hollywood phenomenon Shia LaBeouf about a villain who infilitrates phones, televisions and computers.
Acting giants Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio join forces in the Ridley Scott-directed spy thriller “Body of Lies,” which dropped three spots to sixth place and earned 6.9 million dollars.
“Quarantine,” last weekend’s second place finisher about a television crew trapped in a small apartment building whose residents have been infected with a new strain of rabies, slipped to seventh, earning 6.3 million dollars.
Romantic comedy “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” featuring “Juno” and “Superbad” star Michael Cera, took eighth place, with 3.9 million dollars.
Debuting in ninth spot was “Sex Drive,” which follows the tried-and-true formula of teen sex comedy — 18-year-old virgin protagonist obsesses over losing virginity — to earn 3.6 million dollars.
Big-screen veterans Diane Lane and Richard Gere try to rekindle some romance in “Nights in Rodanthe,” which rounded out the top 10 with 2.7 million dollars.