Panic-struck little chicken rules roost at box office

LOS ANGELES —

The sky is still falling in Hollywood, even though Chicken Little and the Marines have landed. The box office tumbled again despite solid weekends for the animated Chicken Little, which debuted with $ 40.1 million ( all figures U.S.), and the Desert Storm drama Jarhead, which opened with $ 28.8 million, according to studio estimates yesterday. The films paced Hollywood to a healthy weekend, with the top 12 movies grossing $ 121.2 million. Yet that was down 10 per cent from the same weekend in 2004, when The Incredibles alone premiered with $ 70.5 million. This year’s movie attendance is running 8 per cent behind last year’s.

Chicken Little

and Jarhead each came in as much as $ 10 million ahead of industry expectations, a sign audiences are getting into the holiday movie- going spirit. Upcoming releases include Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ( Nov. 18), King Kong ( Dec. 14) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ( Dec. 9 ). A strong finish for Hollywood could indicate the slump resulted from a weak crop of movies earlier this year, rather than analysts’ speculation that audiences were skipping movies in favour of home-entertainment options.

Chicken Little, with Zach Braff providing the voice of the fairytale fowl that proclaimed the sky was falling, is Disney’s first fully computer- animated movie. It was Disney’s second- best animated opening ever, behind The Lion King

with $ 40.9 million. The debut includes $ 2.1 million from 84 theatres showing a 3- D version of Chicken Little.