Vin Diesel’s Riddick unseats Oprah’s Butler

Actor’s latest effort takes the number one spot at the box office.

LOS ANGELES: Vin Diesel’s return as glowing-eyed space traveler Riddick won the weekend movie race, ringing up $18.7 million in US and Canadian ticket sales, and knocking three-time box office queen Oprah Winfrey to second place.

Lee Daniels’ civil rights drama, The Butler, starring Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and media mogul Winfrey, slipped to second, bringing in $8.9 million from Friday through Sunday.

Instructions Not Included, a Spanish-language film directed by Mexican television star Eugenio Derbez, was third with $8.1 million in its second week of release in US and Canadian theatres.

Jennifer Aniston comedy We’re the Millers took in $7.9 million for fourth place, followed by animated Disney film Planes with $4.3 million.

Concert film One Direction: This is Us, about the popular British boy band, fell to the sixth slot with $4.1 million, according to studio estimates.

While Riddick fell short of industry forecasts for a start between $21 million and $24 million at domestic theaters, distributor Universal Pictures had predicted a lower opening between $18 million and $20 million.

“We’re very comfortable with that total,” said Nikki Rocco, president of distribution for Universal Pictures. “We were realistic about this project,” she noted, adding that “the fan base is here for Diesel, so we’re hoping it hangs in there” in the coming weeks.

Diesel promoted Riddick to the huge fan base on his Facebook page, which has scored more than 46 million likes. The actor is best known for his role in the popular Fast & Furious car-chase franchise. Fast & Furious 6, that released in May, raced to nearly $790 million in global sales, ranking as one of the year’s biggest blockbusters.

Riddick is a sequel to 2000 release Pitch Black and 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick.

In the new installment, Riddick, an ex-con who can see in the dark, leaves his comfortable world as leader of the ‘Necromonger’ race to seek out his homeland. Once double-crossed and left for dead, he battles beasts and bounty hunters while he works to rebuild himself, physically and morally.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2013.

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