ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
December 26

Charlie Wilson's War Directed by Mike Nichols Starring Tom Hanks Julia Roberts Philip Seymour Hoffman	National Treasure: Book of Secrets Directed by Jon Turteltaub Starring Nicolas Cage Jon Voight

Musical acts whose debut recordings were made three decades ago dominated the North American concert business in 2007 as half of the top 20 grossing performers started their careers in the 1970s.

The Police topped the chart by taking in $131.9 million from 54 North American shows, far outdistancing the No. 2 seller, Kenny Chesney, who made $71.1 million on the same number of shows, according to Pollstar, which tracks the concert business.

The Police reunion tour had an average ticket price of $114.32 and sold 1.15 million tickets. While their ticket sales were tops as well, the band's average ticket price was second to Barry Manilow at $141.72. He played the bulk of his 98 shows at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Chesney barely squeaked past Justin Timberlake, who grossed $70.6 million from 60 concerts.

Two other reunited bands, Van Halen and Genesis, landed in the top 10. The David Lee Roth-led edition of Van Halen pulled in $56.7 million from 39 dates to land in fifth place; Phil Collins and his mates scored $47.6 million from 25 shows.

Rod Stewart ($49 million), Billy Joel ($39.1 million), Roger Waters ( $38.3 million) and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ($38.2 million) were among the other veteran acts on the list.

Besides Chesney, two other country acts made the top 10: Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, at No. 6, pulled in $52.3 million from 44 bookings; and Rascal Flatts, at No. 10, generated $41.5 million from 57 outings.
'I AM LEGEND' RULING OVERSEAS

Will Smith's "I Am Legend" ruled the international box office during a solid pre-Christmas weekend with $25.3 million in 15 markets.

Smith's apocalyptic thriller led a healthy pack of five family-friendly films -- "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," "The Golden Compass," "Enchanted, "Alvin and the Chipmunks," "Bee Movie" -- as each of the quintet grossed at least $12 million.

With most markets seeing holiday vacations for the next two weeks, foreign box office should end the year with a bang. Hollywood's six major studios have all already topped the $1 billion mark for the first time and are heading for a combined 2007 gross of $9.3 billion -- 8% ahead of last year's record-setting performance, led by Warner Bros. with an estimated $2.15 billion.

"I Am Legend" helped Warner pad its lead with dominant launches in France with $7.6 million, taking 44% of the market, and in Spain with $5.8 million, or 45% of the market and more than double the "National Treasure" debut. Japan's soph sesh declined only 37% to $3.2 million while South Korea slid 59% to $2.4 million.

"Legend" also opened in first in Belgium and Holland with $1.3 million each. Pic, which has already cumed $54.3 million internationally, outperformed similar titles such as "Constantine," "I Robot" and "Die Hard 4.0" in all markets and underlined Smith's status as a worldwide box office draw.

"Legend" opens Wednesday in the U.K. for Boxing Day -- one of the top moviegoing days of the year in that market.

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