Pokémon catches big profits

[11.16.99] » Mewtwo and friends set several records in their opening week.

   To the surprise of no one, Pokémon: The First Movie easily emerged on top of the past weekend's box office rankings, grossing nearly three times as much as the second-place contender, The Bone Collector. Ash's gang earned nearly $32.4 million over the weekend, for a total of $52.1 million over the first five days of release (the movie opened on Wednesday). The movie took in approximately $10,640 per each of the 3,043 screens it played on.

   These impressive stats are enough to earn the movie some records. Not was its opening day a record Wednesday intake for an animated film, the five-day earnings of $52.1 million are the highest non-summer figures for any film of any genre. However, Pokémon: The First Movie still must gross several hundred million more dollars in order to pass Disney's The Lion King, currently the top-grossing animated film of all time with $312.8 million in domestic gross. But given that Warner Brothers paid a paltry $5 million for the English rights to the film, no one will be complaining.

   Catch the GIA's thoughts on Pikachu's big-screen adventure in our review.