Los
Angeles
(Reuters):
So
much
for
the
Internet
hype.
''Snakes
on
a
Plane,''
a
camp
thriller
that
generated
an
unprecedented
tsunami
of
online
hysteria
during
the
past
year,
crawled
into
the
No
1
slot
at
the
North
American
weekend
box
office
with
estimated
ticket
sales
of
just
15.3
million
dollars,
its
distributor
said.
New
Line
Cinema
had
hoped
the
movie
would
open
in
the
low-20
million
dollars
range,
a
spokeswoman
said
yesterday.
While
the
Time
Warner
Inc.-owned
studio
was
disappointed,
she
said
the
film
would
be
profitable.
Hailed
by
celluloid
cognoscenti
as
being
so
bad
that
it's
good,
''Snakes''
cost
about
30
million
dollars
to
make,
a
relatively
modest
sum.
The
sales
figure
covers
actual
data
from
Friday
and
Saturday,
as
well
as
an
estimate
for
yesterday.
It
also
includes
1.4
million
dollars
from
Thursday-evening
screenings.
Samuel
L
Jackson
plays
an
FBI
agent
trying
to
regain
control
of
a
plane
that
the
Mafia
had
filled
with
poisonous
snakes
in
order
to
kill
a
protected
witness.
The
only
problem
was
that
the
title
so
handily
summed
up
the
film's
plot
that
there
was
little
incentive
to
see
it,
said
Brandon
Gray,
an
analyst
at
boxofficemojo.com.
''This
tells
you
that
you
need
to
have
a
compelling
story
or
premise
to
get
an
audience
for
your
movie,''
he
said.
Senior
New
Line
executives
were
not
available
for
comment.
The
project
had
been
in
development
since
1999,
going
through
several
studios,
rewrites
and
directors.
It
became
a
cause
celebre
last
year
when
Jackson
publicly
assailed
New
Line
for
changing
the
title
to
the
nebulous
''Pacific
Air
121.''
The
studio
backed
down,
empowering
Jackson
and
adoring
online
fans
to
complain
that
the
film
was
not
violent
enough.
Scenes
were
added
ratcheting
up
the
gruesome
quotient.
The
bloggers'
victory
ensured
plenty
of
media
coverage,
seemingly
turning
the
little
B-movie
into
a
preordained
must-see
hit.
But
filmmaking-by-Internet
committee
has
its
limits.
Industry
surveys
in
recent
weeks
indicated
only
modest
interest
among
the
moviegoing
masses.
New
Line
found
itself
both
playing
up
the
film's
unusual
backstory
and
playing
down
its
sales
expectations.
It
did
not
screen
the
movie
in
advance
for
critics,
a
common
tactic
when
a
studio
fears
the
reviews
will
be
less
than
complimentary.
The
box-office
champion
for
the
previous
two
weekends,
''Talladega
Nights:
The
Ballad
of
Ricky
Bobby,''
slipped
to
No
2
with
14.1
million
dollars.
The
total
for
Sony
Corporation's
Will
Ferrell
NASCAR
comedy
rose
to
114.7
million
dollars.
Director
Oliver
Stone's
September
11
drama
''World
Trade
Center''
held
steady
at
No
3
in
its
second
weekend
with
10.8
million
dollars
and
the
two-week
total
for
the
burgeoning
hit
rose
to
$45
million.
The
film
was
released
by
Paramount
Pictures,
a
unit
of
Viacom
Inc.
The
top-10
contained
two
other
new
releases,
as
well
as
an
arthouse
hit
that
entered
the
top
tier
for
the
first
time
after
expanding
into
national
release.
The
college
comedy
''Accepted''
opened
at
No
4
with
a
solid
10.1
million
dollars.
The
film
stars
Justin
Long
as
a
youngster
who
starts
his
own
fake
college
after
he
fails
to
be
accepted
into
any
real
colleges.
It
was
released
by
Universal
Pictures,
a
unit
of
General
Electric
Company's
NBC
Universal
Inc.
The
teen
comedy
''Material
Girls,''
starring
siblings
Hilary
and
Haylie
Duff,
opened
at
No
9
with
4.6
million
dollars,
in
line
with
the
modest
expectations
of
its
closely
held
distributor,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Inc.
Doing
considerably
better
was
the
family
comedy
''Little
Miss
Sunshine,''
which
jumped
five
places
to
No
7
with
5.7
million
dollars
in
its
fourth
weekend.
The
crowd-pleaser
has
earned
12.8
million
dollars
to
date.
It
was
released
by
Fox
Searchlight
Pictures,
the
arthouse
arm
of
News
Corp
1
Twentieth
Century
Fox
unit.