I love Nicolas Cage in dramatic (Leaving Las Vegas), comedic (Peggy Sue Got Married), and romantic roles (Moonstruck), but I think my favorite genre for him is action/adventure. I was in the theatre to see both Con Air and The Rock and they are still two of my favorite Cage movies. Of course, when he did National Treasure, I was overjoyed!
In case you missed National Treasure, it is an action/adventure flick that features Nicolas as Benjamin Gates. His family has a long history of being treasure hunters and he carries that on by hunting for treasure, supposedly hidden by the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.
Apparently, I am not the only one that loves Nicolas in an action flick because the film did well at the box office – opening with $35 million in just a little over 3,000 theatres. Overall, it made about $173 million domestically and $174 million in the foreign market. So I guess $347 million worldwide is not too shabby.
That is probably what prompted Walt Disney Pictures to release a sequel titled National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Despite having a three year old, I swore to myself that I would see this one in the theatre when it was released at Christmas and I did, with a little help from a portable DVD player for my son.
For the third straight week, National Treasure: Book of Secrets has been #1 at the box office. It raked in $20.2 million this week, making its total so far $171 million, so it looks like it will surpass the original, at least domestically.
Of course, with all this money buzzing around, National Treasure: Book of Secrets left an opening for yet another sequel (What WAS on page 47 of the President’s Book of Secrets?)
In what is sure to be the third movie in the trilogy, I personally don’t care if we see Benjamin Gates sneaking into Area 51 or finding out just how Stonehenge was built because for me, this is a totally enjoyable film series that I hope my son will also love one day.