Eagle Eye soars at US box office

Eagle Eye stars LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan from Mission: Impossible III

Thriller Eagle Eye is the top movie at the North American box office, having taken more than twice as much as its nearest rival in its opening weekend.

The film, which stars Shia LaBeouf of Indiana Jones fame, made $29.2m (�16m) between Friday and Sunday, according to studio estimates.

Nights in Rodanthe, a romance starring Richard Gere, opened in second place with a weekend tally of $13.6m (�7.5m).

Lakeview Terrace, last week's top film, dropped down to three.

Other new entries in this week's Top 10 include Fireproof, a drama about a Christian firefighter which opened in fourth place.

Spike Lee's Miracle at St Anna, a World War II drama about a group of African American soldiers in Italy, entered the chart at nine.

'Perfect antidote'

The response to Eagle Eye - in which LaBeouf plays a young man on the run from the law - ensured overall box office takings were up 12.3% on the same time last year.

The film reunites the actor with director DJ Caruso following the chart-topping success of surveillance thriller Disturbia in April last year.

NORTH AMERICA BOX OFFICE 1 Eagle Eye - $29.2m 2 Nights in Rodanthe - $13.6m 3 Lakeview Terrace - $7m 4 Fireproof - $6.5m 5 Burn After Reading - $6.2m Source: Media By Numbers

He said it was "a perfect antidote" for the traditional slowdown that occurs at this time of the year.

LaBeouf attended Eagle Eye's US premiere earlier this month, keeping his injured left hand discreetly out of view.

The 22-year-old required extensive surgery after hurting his arm in a car crash in Los Angeles in July.

For the first time in two-and-a-half months, Batman sequel The Dark Knight failed to break into the US and Canadian Top 10.

The film has made more than half a billion dollars at the US box office since its release on 18 July.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version