Hollywood Deep

“Resident Evil: Extinction,” with Milla Jovovich again fighting flesh-hungry zombies in the third installment based on the video game, opened as the No. 1 weekend flick with $24 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. It was the best debut for the franchise, topping the $23 million debut of part two, 2004’s “Resident Evil: Apocalypse.”

Sony Screen Gems hinted there could be more “Resident Evil” movies, though the latest had been billed as the final one.

“Until the next,” joked Rory Bruer, Sony’s head of distribution. “It absolutely would not surprise me considering the success of the franchise that they find a way to come up with another. It’s a real possibility.”

Lionsgate’s “Good Luck Chuck,” with Jessica Alba and Dane Cook in a romantic comedy about a man jinxed at finding true love, debuted in second place with $14 million despite an almost universal thrashing by critics. The previous weekend’s top movie, the Warner Bros. drama “The Brave One,” fell to No. 3 with $7.4 million, raising its total to $25.1 million. Brad Pitt’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” and Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild” each opened strongly in limited release. The top five movies all had R ratings, unusual in a movie market generally dominated by PG-13 flicks.

I never saw any of the Resident Evil movies, but Speedy Pete from freevideogamestuff.com tells me the games are cool. I’ll probably wait for cable on this one. It looks pretty cool though, it has a Mad Max kind of feel to it, and Mila a Jovovich is pretty hot.

Weekend Box Office Top 5

1. Resident Evil: Extinction $24M
2. Good Luck Chuck $14M
3. The Brave One $7.42M
4. 3:10 to Yuma $6.35M
5. Eastern Promises $5.75M

Full Box Office Chart

Milla #1

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