GI Joe seizes box office
LOS ANGELES, USA (AP) — After a nine-month delay, G.I. Joe: Retaliation deployed to the top spot at the box office.
The action film starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum as the gun-toting military toys brought to life marched into the No. 1 position at the weekend box office, earning US$41.2 million, according to studio estimates yesterday. Retaliation opened Wednesday at midnight, which helped bring its domestic total to US$51.7 million.
Paramount postponed the sequel to 2009’s G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra last May from its original June opening date to convert the film to 3-D. The last-minute switcheroo came just weeks after Battleship, another movie based on a Hasbro toy, sank at the box office. At that time, Paramount already began its advertising campaign for “Retaliation.”
