<i>X-Men</i> Conquer The Box Office
After a sleepy start to the summer, the turnstiles have really started to spin. First, the Wayans brothers rocked last weekend with their horror spoof Scary Movie. Now, this weekend, mutants dazzled the box office, reports CBS News Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd.
X-Men had the fourth-biggest non-sequel and non-holiday opening ever, beating out Scary Movie as the biggest moneymaker on the big screen this year.
Here are the numbers, according to Hollywood.com:
- X-Men, $57.5 million
- Scary Movie, $26.1 million
- The Perfect Storm, $17.5 million
- The Patriot, $11 million
- The Kid, $10.5 million
He's no stranger to film villainy; Park is the one who played Darth Maul in Phantom Menace.
But if you don't recognize him without the makeup, you are not alone.
"I'm not getting mobbed. I'm not getting stormed and jumped on," says Park, adding, "I think the fans, you know, the people who are into the movies and know who I am recognize me. But I don't know. I haven't gotten into a position where I've thought I just want to have my privacy."
His role in X-Men won't change that. As Toad, he is hidden behind green skin and warts.
"I was thinking, 'How do you become Toad without being stereotyped like anyone else who's had a character like that in that sort of way?' Because in the original comics, Toad was a hunchback, you know?" Park explains. "So I tried to use more facial expressions, and there's deep stances and the low postures. The Toad."
With two successful films under his belt, Park is living the life he has always wanted.
"You know, I used to fantasize and dream about doing stuff like this," he says. "And so, when I did work on my first film, I was like, 'Whoa… This is fate.' And I just made the best of what I had and just kept it going."
With his martial arts background, Parks had expected that his film career would start in Hong Kong before moving to Hollywood. Even though it didn't work out that way, he would still like to make films with both Jackie Chan and Jet Li.