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"Mamma Mia!" Has Brought in One-Half Billion Dollars at the B.O.; Now Top Grossing Brit Pix
By Andrew Gans
30 Oct 2008
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"Mamma Mia!" stars Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep
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| photo by Peter Mountain © Universal Pictures | The hit film "Mamma Mia!" — based on the musical of the same name — has now brought in over one-half a billion dollars worldwide.
According to boxofficemojo.com, the film, which stars Academy Award winner Meryl Streep as hip mom Donna Sheridan, has grossed $143,561,495 domestically and $409,034,460 in foreign markets for a grand total of $552,595,955.
Variety also reports that the film is now the U.K.'s highest grossing domestically made movie (it was U.K. financed). To date, the movie musical has earned $109.1 million at the U.K. box office, besting the previous record holder, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which took in $107.6 million in the U.K.
It is likely that "Mamma Mia!" will surpass the highest-grossing film ever in the U.K., "Titanic," which earned $112.5 million at the U.K. box office.
Following a record-breaking opening in the U.K., "Mamma Mia!" opened in cinemas nationwide July 18.
In addition to Streep, the "Mamma Mia!" cast also features Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Stellan Skarsgard and Dominic Cooper. The film was directed by Phyllida Lloyd, who is making her feature-film debut. Lloyd helmed both the London and Broadway mountings of Mamma Mia!
Using the catalogue of '70s pop group ABBA, Johnson's plot tells the story of bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan, who hopes to discover her father's identity on the eve of her wedding. She brings three men from her mother Donna's past back to the Greek island they last visited 20 years previously.
The show and film feature music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Since the original London production opened in 1999, the musical has grossed over $2 billion worldwide.
The film, according to the Universal Pictures website, is described as such: "An independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, Donna (Streep) is about to let go of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), the spirited daughter she's raised alone. For Sophie's wedding, Donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends-practical and no-nonsense Rosie (Julie Walters) and wealthy, multi-divorcee Tanya (Christine Baranski)-from her one-time backing band, Donna and the Dynamos. But Sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own.
"On a quest to find the identity of her father to walk her down the aisle, she brings back three men from Donna's past to the Mediterranean paradise they visited 20 years earlier. Over 24 chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled on this lush island full of possibilities."
Mamma Mia! continues to play to sell-out crowds at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre.
For more information visit www.universalpictures.com.
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