(From left ) Steve Carell stars as Andy, the title character in the comedy 'The 40 Year-Old Virgin', whose pals David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco) and Cal (Seth Rogen) make it their mission to find him a date ... fast. - CONTRIBUTED
LOS ANGELES (AP):
STEVE CARELL scored in his maiden voyage as a leading man, with his comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin taking in US$20.6 million to debut at the top of the box office in North America.
Opening in second place was Wes Craven's airplane thriller Red Eye, which raked in US$16.5 million in its first weekend, according to studio estimates yesterday.
The two new movies bumped the previous weekend's top flick, Four Brothers, to third place with US$13 million. Four Brothers lifted its 10-day total to US$43.6 million.
The weekend's other wide releases tanked. Disney's Valiant, an animated tale about the exploits of heroic homing pigeons during World War II, came in at No. 7 with US$6.1 million.
Supercross: The Movie, a motorcycle-racing flick so bad the studio did not screen it in advance for critics, opened well out of the top 10 with US$1.3 million.
TOP 12 EARNERS
The overall box office was down slightly, with the top 12 movies grossing US$98.8 million, off three per cent from the same weekend last year. Hollywood receipts have sagged for most of the year, running about seven per cent behind 2004's revenues.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which Carell co-wrote, casts him as a middle-age electronics store clerk whose co-workers discover he's never had sex and set out to find him an easy woman, only to see him begin dating a single mom (Catherine Keener) with a mutual no-sex policy.
"Forty-year-old virgins everywhere are celebrating the No. 1 opening of their hero," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Distributor Universal hopes The 40-Year-Old Virgin can muster the same good word of mouth that made another R-rated sex romp, Wedding Crashers, one of summer's biggest successes.
"Our racy little R-rated comedies are making a hit this year," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal.
Critics warmly embraced The 40-Year-Old Virgin, a sign the movie could get talked up enough by audiences to hold up well in subsequent weekends.
SCREAM MOVIES
Red Eye stars Rachel McAdams as a woman on an overnight flight who's forced to assist in an assassination plot by her seat mate (Cillian Murphy), a man threatening to have her father killed unless she complies.
An understated departure for horror master Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, the Scream movies), Red Eye also received high marks from critics.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through yesterday at North American theatres, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released today.
Top 10 earners
1. The 40-Year-Old Virgin, US$20.6 million
2. Red Eye,
US$16.5 million
3. Four Brothers, US$13 million
4. Wedding Crashers, US$8.3 million
5. The Skeleton Key, US$7.4 million
6. March of the Penguins, US$6.7 million
7. Valiant, US$6.1 million
8.Dukes of Hazzard, US$5.7 million
9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, US$4.5 million
10.Sky High, US$4 million
