'Messengers' Wins Box Office on Super Bowl Weekend

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Horror movie "The Messengers" opened at No. 1 in the weekend box office in North America as Sony Pictures scored again in its Super Bowl counterprogramming strategy, according to studio estimates issued Sunday.

"Messengers," directed by Hong Kong horror experts the Pang brothers and geared toward a young audience with its PG-13 rating, earned $14.5 million since opening Friday.

But close behind was "Because I Said So," grossing $13 million as Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric , chose to open the mother-daughter comedy starring Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore to appeal to females not too interested in football.

The figures are based on ticket sales for Friday and Saturday and estimates for Sunday, when the United States comes to a halt to watch professional football's championship game and movie audiences thin.

Sony said "Messengers," made by the Screen Gems label, marked the studio's seventh straight year of topping the box office on Super Bowl weekend.

"Sony just has this incredible knack, through their Screen Gems label, for creating these modestly budgeted horror films, marketing the heck out of them and opening them at No. 1," said Paul Degarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, which tracks box-office results.

It was the second No. 1 debut so far this year for Sony/Screen Gems, which also released "Stomp the Yard," an urban dance drama that stood at No. 6 this weekend and has brought in ticket sales of $56 million by its fourth week.

In the third spot this week was the lowbrow comedy spoof "Epic Movie," last week's No. 1, from 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. In its second weekend, it grossed $8.2 million for a cumulative total of $29 million, surpassing the studio's investment in the low-$20 million range.

Fox also held fourth place with box-office stalwart "Night at the Museum" starring Ben Stiller, which tacked on another $6.8 million in ticket sales for a grand total of $225 million.

Rounding out the top five was Universal's "Smokin' Aces," a gangland saga starring Ben Affleck, which opened last week at No. 2 and has garnered ticket sales of $25 million.

Films released in the first quarter of the year do not tend to be blockbusters as the film industry holds it breath for the Academy Awards on Feb. 25.

"You have the Oscar contenders still out there so people can catch up on those," said Degarabedian. "And you have a mix of new films and holdovers like 'Night at the Museum' and 'Epic Movie."'

Indeed, Oscar nominees across several categories -- "Dreamgirls" (Paramount), "Pan's Labyrinth" (Picture House), "The Pursuit of Happyness" (Sony) and "The Queen" (Miramax) -- held their places in the top 10 this weekend.

Reuters/VNU