HOLLYWOOD - Adding a little kick to the box office this weekend, New Line Cinema's Rush Hour 2, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, raked in $66.8 million its first weekend of release.
The weekend's gross gives the film the No. 4 opening in history, the No. 3 non-holiday opening, and the No. 1 action/comedy opening in history (edging out New Line's very own Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, which earned $54.9 million its first weekend). The sequel doubled Rush Hour debut of $33 million in September 1998.
"It was a stunning opening," Steve Elzer, New Line's senior vice president of corporate communication, said Sunday. "And the promotional campaign for this film was phenomenal. These guys [Tucker and Chan] were everywhere promoting this thing. Late-night talk shows, Comedy Central. TNT did a great run of the first [Rush Hour]. [Tucker and Chan] even showed up on Regis and Kelly. We're very pleased."
Rush Hour 2, which transplants Chan and Tucker in Hong Kong this time around, showed on 4,524 screens in 3,118 theaters, pulling in $21,424 per theater. It is rated PG-13.
Twentieth Century Fox's PG-13-rated Planet of the Apes, which dominated the box office last week, dropped an astonishing 58 percent, but still earned a respectable $28.5 million. The film, starring Mark Wahlberg and Estella Warren--about a civilization of advanced apes--showed on 3,530 screens, making an average of $8,059 on each.
Bruce Snyder, president of 20th Century Fox distribution, said that Planet's decrease was somewhat inevitable.
"When everybody's in there the first week at the opening...well, you know," he said.
Nevertheless, Snyder said, the film surpassed the $100 million mark in its eighth day in release. So far, the film has earned an estimated $124.7 million.
Disney's The Princess Diaries, starring newcomer Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, grossed a healthy $23.2 million in its first weekend of release. The G-rated film, about an unconventional 16-year-old who's offered the throne of a small European country, showed on 2,537 screens nationwide.
"Needless to say, we're very, very happy," said Elizabeth Wolfe of Disney/Buena Vista Pictures.
Wolf said the film's earnings were quite close to Princess' total cost.
The Princess Diaries was directed by Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman).