Los Angeles: A week after Mission: Impossible III under whelmed moviegoers in North America, the maritime disaster film Poseidon capsized on its maiden voyage, selling just $20.3 million worth of tickets over the weekend, its distributor said on Sunday.
Mission, meanwhile, scored a second weekend at number one with three-day sales of $24.5 million- a modest drop of 49 per cent from its opening.
Most big films usually drop between 50 per cent and 60 per cent in their second weekends. After 10 days, its total stands at $84.6 million.
Tom Cruise's action thriller is clearly trailing its predecessors, although exact comparisons are difficult because they both opened on the Wednesday before the busy Memorial Day holiday weekend at the end of May, while the latest one opened on a regular Friday.
After 12 days, 1996's Mission: Impossible had earned $107.2 million, and the 2000 sequel $130.7 million.
Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, released the films. The soggy opening for German director Wolfgang Petersen's $160 million remake of the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure was not unexpected.
Surveys of moviegoers in the weeks before its release had indicated a distinct lack of enthusiasm. "While we had hoped for a slightly stronger opening, it's a little premature to assess the financial viability of the movie," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic theatrical distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc.
It has been a rough start to the summer for effects-laden Hollywood extravaganzas. However, hopes are high for Sony Corp.'s adaptation of the controversial Vatican bestseller The Da Vinci Code, which opens worldwide next weekend.
Also new this weekend, was the Lindsay Lohan starrer teen romance Just My Luck, which opened at number four with a modest $5.5 million.
Not surprisingly, 80 per cent of the audience was female and 70 per cent aged under 25, said distributor Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.
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