American Gangsta Bullies Its Way Pass $100mil
The animated flick "Beowulf," slew the competition over the pre-Thanksgivng weekend and gave a huge shot in the arm to the future of 3-D films. The Paramount Pictures release earned $28.1 million in its opening weekend — 40 percent of which came from special 3-D showings in regular theaters and on Imax screens.
Still enjoying a little box office honey at number two was “Bee Movie”, sweetening its pot to $94 million with a $14.3 weekend. Denzel Washington's “American Gangster” continues to blow the competition away, however, with another $13.2 million to pass the $100 million mark and rounding out the top three.
Unfortunately for "Gangsta", various reports have Denzel's film, the budget of which has been rumored to be more than $100 million, selling on street corners in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere for $5 or less. Unlike other pirated films, however, is the breakneck speed in which "Gangster" moved beyond Internet file-sharing and typical movie-studio headaches. In light of this ongoing writers strike, what does this portend for the industry as a whole? Whatever the answer is, I find it ironic that here you have a movie about illegal activity and now these street hustlers are taking the story to heart. Literally!