'Doctor Parnassus' makes grand debut in European box offices

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Heath Ledger's final screen performance in Terry Gilliam's ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' is raging at select European box offices this week as it earned a whopping $2.7 million in its first weekend in Italy.

Also starring Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell among others, the movie is at no.2 on the box office chart in Italy for the weekend of October 23, after having premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May 2009.

According to entertainment trade publication Variety.com , the estimated $45 million movie raked in around $1.5 million in the UK where it was first released to the public and a little over $330 thousand in Spain, distributed by Sony Pictures.

Set for a November 11 release in France and a December 25 release in the US, the media counts Heath Ledger's performance, incomplete due to his death and later taken over by the cast, as one of the main reasons for the movie's success. Gilliam from Twelve Monkeys and The Brothers Grimm fame adds to the high-profile of this fantasy revolving around Ledger's character assisting Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) in dealing with the devil.

Distributors recently changed worldwide release dates
October 29 in Australia
November 5 in New Zealand
November 26 in Greece
January 5, 2010 in Austria
January 7, 2010 in Germany
January 30, 2010 in Japan

http://www.doctorparnassus.co.uk/