NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

‘Chronicle’ edges ‘Woman’ with $22M

LOS ANGELES

Some unknown kids with superpowers have nudged out the world’s most famous teen wizard at the weekend box office.

The 20th Century Fox release “Chronicle,” featuring a relatively unknown cast as youths who gain telekinetic abilities, debuted as the No. 1 movie with $22 million.

Sunday studio estimates put “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe’s ghost story “The Woman in Black,” released by CBS Films, just behind with a $21 million opening.

The results were close enough that the No. 1 and 2 rankings could switch when final numbers are released today.

The previous weekend’s top movie, Liam Neeson’s Alaska survival tale “The Grey,” slipped to No. 3 with $9.5 million, raising its domestic total to $34.6 million.

At No. 4 with an $8.5 million debut was another Alaska adventure, Universal Pictures’ family film “Big Miracle,” with Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski aiming to save three whales trapped by Arctic ice.

In fifth place was “Underworld Awakening” with $5.6 million.

Filmmakers die in helicopter crash

SYDNEY

Award-winning American cinematographer Mike deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight have died in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia, their employer National Geographic said Sunday.

Police said two people — an Australian pilot and an American passenger — died Saturday when their helicopter crashed soon after takeoff from an airstrip near Nowra, 97 miles north of Sydney.

Australia’s ABC News reported that Wight was piloting the helicopter when it crashed.

National Geographic and “Titanic” director James Cameron confirmed the victims’ identities in a joint statement that said “the deep-sea community lost two of its finest” with the deaths of the two underwater documentary specialists.

David Bennett, president of Australia’s South Coast Recreational Flying Club, said the pair had set off to film a documentary when they crashed.

DeGruy, 60, of Santa Barbara, Calif., won multiple Emmy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, awards for cinematography.

Wight, 52, of Melbourne, was the writer-producer of the 3D movie “Sanctum,” which took in $100 million and was Australian cinema’s biggest box-office hit of 2010.

Associated Press