WAR TOPPLES TOMB RAIDER FOR CROWN
Copyright 2005 www.tombraiderchronicles.com

[ July 2nd 2005 ]

Steven Spielberg's epic motion picture War Of The Worlds has nudged aside former pole sitter Lara Croft Tomb Raider to become Paramount Pictures' biggest opening day grossing movie, netting $21.3 million in ticket sales. The Tom Cruise helmed pic becomes the seventh biggest grossing movie of all-time for a Wednesday debut.

The opening-day assault did not include such key markets as the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Korea, UIP president and chief operating officer Andrew Cripps told Reuters News Agency. Sony's Spider-Man 2 holds the record for the biggest Wednesday opening of all-time, with $40.4 million.

Based on the novel by H.G. WellS, War Of The Worlds plots the struggle of a family fighting an alien invasion bent on destroying the earth.