With an opening salvo of $7.87m in the UK over the weekend, 20th Century Fox's release of Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes became its third biggest UK opening of all time behind 1999's The Phantom Menace ($13.8m) and 1996's Independence Day ($10.1m), and edged out Batman & Robin to take 10th position in the top 10 UK openings of all time.
Demonstrating yet again this summer that the critics can't dent the blockbuster phenomenon, the re-imagining of Pierre Boulle's novel La Planete Des Singes and the original 1968 film of the same name, has shown once more that a summer blockbuster is virtually critic proof. On its opening weekend Planet Of The Apes became the fourth highest opener of the year, including previews, behind Hannibal ($9.25m), The Mummy Returns ($8.57m) and Bridget Jones's Diary ($8.27m).
Showing at 446 UK sites the feature, which stars Mark Wahlberg alongside latex-covered Brit actors Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter, showed a massive $17,646 site average.
The film also saw a strong opening week in Australia where it claimed the top spot with $2.87m (A$5.4m) from 346 screens, for an average of $8,283. The strong supporting cast includes The Green Mile's Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti and original Apes star Charlton Heston in a cameo.
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