'Mamma Mia!' is UK's Favorite Movie Ever
Every week, when I report on the weekend's domestic box office totals, I'm totally excluding all the readers from other countries. Sorry about that. The web is worldwide now, and I'm not respecting that. So this week, let me give you readers in the UK box office update: you've all been taking off work to see Mamma Mia! so often that it's become the UK's highest grossing movie ever. From Yahoo (thanks to Adam):
The unflagging cheerfulness of ABBA conquered the red-hot chemistry between Leo and Kate this week as Mamma Mia! nudged aside the 11-time Oscar winner as the top-grossing film of all time at the U.K. box office.The light 'n fluffy musical, en route to earning $571.7 million worldwide, has taken in $107.7 million across the pond after 22 weeks in theaters. Titanic held the record for 10 years after bagging 69 million pounds (about $107.5 million in today's currency) in 1998.
"Mamma Mia! is pure escapism, proving a fun and inexpensive way to forget about the state of the economy for a couple of hours," Universal Pictures International president David Kosse said Tuesday, calling the film a "true phenomenon."
DVD sales also went through the roof, with the jaunty romantic comedy sellling 1.7 million copies its first day out.
Wait, does this mean it passed Titanic in box office sales weeks after it came out on DVD? Why would that be? That seems insane.
"Hon, I know we've got the DVD, and we just watched it again last night, but--"
"YES!"
Can anyone from the UK explain this phenomenon? Is it like Rocky Horror, with midnight screenings and people dressed up as Meryl Streep? The best explanation I can come up with is that maybe it's older person's the equivalent of how anything referencing the '80s is popular on the internet--like some people are just excited they recognize ABBA songs, which is a terrifying thought.