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Film and TV

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Record 9.4m debut for Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Sherna Noah
18/10/2005

The new Wallace and Gromit movie The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit took a staggering £9.4 million in the UK on its opening weekend.

Friday's opening took place just days after the company behind the film, Oscar-winning Aardman Animations, was hit by a devastating fire.

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit now holds the claymation film box office record for an opening weekend.

US box office receipts now total about 33 million dollars (£18.6 million).

Mystery

Aardman Animations' latest film sees Wallace and his faithful dog, Gromit, set out to discover the mystery behind the garden sabotage that plagues their village and threatens the annual giant vegetable growing contest.

Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, and Peter Kay all voice parts in the movie.

Run by Park, Peter Lord and David Sproxton, Aardman Animations has three Oscars and is now among the most powerful British company in the movies.

It lost hundreds of props, sets and models which were stored at Aardman's Victorian warehouse in Bristol during last week's blaze.

Formed in Bristol in 1976, Aardman Animations claimed its first major success a year later when the Plasticine figure Morph was launched on the BBC.

The company went on to produce pop videos and adverts, before moving into short films.

Park, who joined Aardman in 1985, won his first Oscar five years later for the Creature Comforts animations, and went to win two more for Wallace and Gromit's The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave.

The UK weekend figure includes £2.9 million of paid previews.

Keira Knightley film Pride and Prejudice recently took £2.5 million at the box office in its opening weekend across the UK and Ireland.

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