LONDON – “The King’s Speech” — already widely tipped as an Oscar contender — topped the box office over the weekend, but the take failed to match the hype, according to figures from Screen International on Tuesday. The story of how the present queen’s father George VI fought to overcome a lifelong speech impediment, starring Colin Firth and Helena Bonham-Carter, took a less-than-stellar 3.53 million pounds on its debut.
“Slumdog” director Danny Boyle’s latest film “127 Hours” was new in second place with a trapped mountaineer resorting to desperate measures to free himself. The film took 2.16 million pounds. Third was the Christmas chart-topper “Little Fockers,” which was down one place, while last week’s number one, the 3D update of Jonathan Swift’s 18th century satire “Gulliver’s Travels,” slipped three to fourth.
Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks came in at five with prison-break thriller “The Next Three Days.” “Love and Other Drugs,” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway finding romance in the world of pharmaceutical sales, fell three to sixth, just above “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” which was unchanged in seventh spot. Disney’s “Tron Legacy” fell two to eight while “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” was down at nine from five. Supernatural thriller “Season of the Witch,” with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman made its debut at No. 10.
