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Odeon snub hurts Rambo box office

Other News Materials 27 February 2008 03:04 (UTC +04:00)

( BBC ) - The latest Rambo film has failed to top the UK box office chart, following national chain Odeon's decision not to screen it at any of its cinemas.

The chain has attributed its decision to undisclosed "commercial reasons".

Sylvester Stallone's action movie took ?1.27m in its first weekend - ?266,000 less than number one film Jumper.

Jack Black comedy Be Kind Rewind also took more money - although its second place in this week's chart is dependent on takings from two days of previews.

The Odeon ban "obviously affected it massively," said Diana Lodderhose of industry journal Screen International, which compiles the figures.

She added the row between Odeon and Sony Pictures Releasing could have halved its takings.

"It would have been number one had they not had this spat with Odeon," she told the BBC News website.

"I would have thought it would have hit ?2.5 million to ?3 million on another hundred screens.

"People were really looking forward to it and the cinemas that were showing it were pretty packed."

The film sees Stallone return to the role of Vietnam veteran John Rambo he first played in 1982 film First Blood.

The latest instalment, rated 18 by the British Board of Film Classification, has been criticised for its extreme violence.

Stallone's previous film Rocky Balboa, itself part of a long-running franchise, made ?3.6m in its opening weekend in January 2007.

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