The Scorpion King
WWF OFFICIALS ATTEND SCORPION KING PREMIERE
- Vince, Linda, Shane and his wife Marissa McMahon along with Pat Patterson,
TV writer Brian Gewirtz, WWFE Executive Vice President Julie Hoffman, Jim Ross
and his wife all attended the premiere of The Rock's movie earlier this week
in Los Angeles, CA. So far the movie is getting nice reviews from those who
already saw a screening of it and although it's not Oscar material the action
and little comedy thrown in makes the movie very enjoyable.
THE SCORPION KING OPENS NATIONWIDE TODAY
- It's showtime for Rocky. Today, his first movie in a leading role, The Scorpion
King, opens up in theaters across the nation and everyone, especially Universal
Pictures, have high hopes for the movie. Movie insiders and journalists who
already saw the movie are all buzzing over The Rock. His presence on the camera
is said to be fantastic for a 'newbie', and everyone is listing the former heavyweight
champion as the next Hollywood action star. His wrestling role is however in
jeopardy and although even he stated that he won't trade movies for wrestling,
the idea is already shifting the other way round. Filming for his next
movie starts in Summer of this year and he will be out for quite a few more
months. Asked when he will be wrestling again during an interview, The Rock
replied, "Not in a few months." He also hinted that his wrestling
dates will be very, very limited and may only be a handful of appearances per
year. The interesting question is what will happen when time comes for The Rock
to legally take 'The Rock' name from the WWF trademark file? It's a situation
that sooner or later both parties will
fight for although The Rock said that for now he doesn't foresee any problems
since the WWF is supporting his acting career. Vince McMahon is listed as an
Executive Producer for The Scorpion King and the company will also receive a
couple of million of dollars for their role in the movie.
NYPOST REVIEWS THE ROCK
- The NYPost.com website lists The Rock as Hollywood's next action hero.
In an article on their website, columnist Corey Levitan looks at The Rock's
impressive debut leading-role in his movie 'The Scorpion King', and doesn't
have one bad word to say about him. Even journalists and movie insiders who
attended a screening last week in LA of the movie, they all had good things
to say about The Rock. The article also compares The Rock to Arnold Schwarzenneger
even citing a funny story from last year when Schwarzenneger broke his ribs
after a motorcycle
accident and The Rock sent him a tricycle at the hospital!
THE SCORPION KING SMASHES RECORD
- Universal Pictures execs estimate that the movie The Scorpion King will gross
$36 million for its opening weekend, the largest opening for the month of April
in movie history. It will also place The Rock's flick the second largest opening
movie for 2002 so far, just around $10 million down from the number one opener
Ice Age. "The World Wrestling Federation is extremely proud that one of
its own has crossed over from WWF Superstar to action adventure super stardom,
it couldn't happen to a harder working, more deserving person," said Vince
McMahon on WWF.COM today.
ROCK'S MOVIE TAKES $36.2 MILLION
- Records were broken as The Rock's movie 'The Scorpion King' took home a $36.2
million opening weekend, surpassing the previous record for April set by 'The
Matrix' in 1999 which got $27.8 million. Sandra Bullock's new movie 'Murder
by Numbers' which also opened on Friday only got $9.5 million for its opening
weekend. Looks like the multi-million dollar advertising campaign for 'The Scorpion
King' paid off fairly well and although the number was down from 'The Mummy'
& 'The Mummy Returns' openings - $43.4 and $68.1 million respectively -
it was still a big debut for a movie which had a new a kid on the block starring
in the leading role. The flick had a $60 million budget.
The movie played in 3,444 theaters and averaged $10,511 a cinema. Only the movie 'Ice Age' beat 'The Scorpion King' as the biggest opening weekend with $46.31 million. There surely must be some happy troopers within the Universal and WWF camp.