Darren Aronofsky’s "Noah" debuts at No. 1 on box-officeMarch 31, 2014 - 15:57 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Thanks to the heavy criticism surrounding the movie, "Noah" gets the publicity it needed and successfully took the number one position in the weekend box office. The Darren Aronofsky-directed film racked in an estimated $44 million in ticket sales, a number beyond the studio's expectations, according to AceShowbiz. Paramount Pictures initially forecast a $30-million weekend opening for the biblical movie that used $130 million in budget. It actually gained $95 million overseas. "It was a fantastic result," Paramount's president of domestic marketing and distribution Megan Colligan said in a statement. "I think the movie really surprises people and makes them want to talk about it." The film faced chagrins before its release. Some religious groups claimed the story had been inaccurately portrayed, prompting Paramount to add a disclaimer to marketing materials saying that "this isn't a literal version of the Bible." There was also a debate whether Paramount would release Aronofsky's preferred cut and whether Russell Crowe got to meet the Pope. Nevertheless, "Noah" had a fair share of male and female audience as well as major turnout among Christians, Catholic Latinos and African American. "There was a pretty good balance of age ranges but a little bit of an older crowd, which we expected," Colligan said. Coming second in the weekend box office is last week's champion "Divergent" which generated approximately $26.5 million. One of the newcomers in the list was the biopic "Cesar Chavez". Despite well-reviewed, the film only pulled in an estimated $3 million in its opening weekend, sitting at number 12. Related links: Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Titus, Bilirakis lead legislation to sanction Azerbaijani war criminals Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) have introduced the bipartisan legislation. Azerbaijan must respect human rights, Scholz tells Aliyev German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for greater respect for human rights in Azerbaijan. Armenia: Defense Ministry warns against involving army in political processes The Ministry’s statement came after a video surfaced online, showing soldiers joining the protests in Tavush. Scholz hopes Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty will be signed this year German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes that a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be signed this year. |