'Sahara' opens as top film in U.S., Canada

April 11, 2005 Moviegoers who pushed it to No. 1 with a reported $18.1 million take for the weekend ending April 10 at the U.S. and Canadian box office welcomed the premiere of the movie Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey and Penélope Cruz. Still, the total was $10 million less than Sin City, the top film of the previous week, made in its debut.

Sahara is described as an adventure movie with plenty of fun. McConaughey plays a tanned and fit traveler searching for a long lost U.S. Civil War battleship, filled with gold coins, and finds love in the process. Sin City, starring Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba, dropped to second place but was still doing well with a $14.1 million dollar sophomore weekend. Filling out the top shows: Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, which falls from #5 to #7 with more than $4.1 million "The Pacifier," which drops from #6 to #8 with more than $3 million; The Ring Two,  from #7 to #9 with $2.9 million; and "The Upside of Anger," from #8 to #10 with $2.6 million.

Ticket sales at all box offices showed a decline from last year for the same weekend.