IMAX presentations of DreamWorks’ “I Am Number Four” accounted for a very strong 13% of the film’s $19.5 mil. in opening weekend box office grosses, pushing the movie distributed by Disney to a strong second place finish, not far behind Warner Bros.’ thriller “Unknown.”
IMAX was responsible for 13% of the “Number Four” take, according to Hollywood Box Office. That’s not surprising because the IMAX presentation greatly enhances the movie that has a lot in common with the stories of “Superman”/”Superman II” from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and “Transformers.” It’s big and noisy with giant alien creatures and humanoids wielding really big weapons who tear up roads, schools and football stadiums in their quest to track down and kill nine of their own species who mysteriously wound up on Earth as teens where each is discovering they have unique super powers. All of which is delightfully magnified on the much bigger IMAX screens and through the IMAX sound system that rattles your seats.
The movie also has a bit of the old WB network feel (and now “Twilight”) with the movie mostly populated by attractive teens and mostly taking place at nighttime.
If not much is particular original, it’s all good fun and holds your interest, maybe even enough to see at least the first follow-up in what producer Michael Bay apparently hopes to be a franchise series.
Meanwhile, two 3D movies remained in the top six in their second weekend but “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” dropped from a close second all the way to sixth place with $13.6 mil. this weekend, while Elton John’s “animated “Gnomeo & Juliet” brought in another $19.4 mil. for Disney to keep it in third place with only a 23% drop, bringing its total to $50.4 mil., just slightly behind Bieber’s cume of $51.7 mil.
— By Scott Hettrick