While the hit musical Mamma Mia! released in the US in July, this week onwards, the film will have a sing-along version in the theatres as well. And that means, you may be sitting next to someone, whose singing can drive you nuts, as the subtitles for the ABBA songs appear in the film.
Mamma Mia!, made for $ 65 million, has already grossed $ 350 million. This is the highest grossing film for the Oscar winning actress Meryl Streep.
Universal, which released the film, expected it to be one of the most profitable films of the decade, especially when the DVD and soundtrack sales are factored.
'Audiences at these specially selected theaters,' Universal said, in a press note this week, 'are invited to bring friends and family to experience the smash hit movie musical in a whole new way by singing along to the songs they love.'
The sing-along edition of the film will feature the lyrics such ABBA hits as Dancing Queen, S.O.S., Money, Money, Money, Take a Chance on Me and Lay All Your Love on Me.
Mamma Mia! is based on the long-running musical of the same name, which has grossed a whopping $2 billion worldwide in ticket sales and about $500 million in sale of CDs and other merchandise. The Broadway version of the musical grosses $1 million a week after five years, and fills the auditorium 90 percent for most weeks. The film version is produced and directed by first-timer Phyllida Lloyd, who helmed the London and Broadway versions of the show.
While the behemoth of a hit The Dark Knight is heading to a $505 million gross in North America at the end of the first week of September and becomes the second film after the $600 million grossing Titanic, Mamma Mia!, which cost one third of Dark Knight's budget, is setting a record for screen musicals.
In North America, the film is heading for a $135 million gross, which is not bad at all. In other places, especially the United Kingdom where it is steadily heading for a $100 million gross, the box office receipts have been phenomenal.
Many critics did not care for the film, just the way many critics were dismissive of the stage musical. But the audiences, especially women, have loved the show in which a soon-to-be bride secretly invites the three men in her mother's hidden life to her wedding. The story unfolds on a tiny Greek island where the former hippie mother (Streep) is running a taverna. The daughter hopes that somehow she could figure out who her real father is and he could then give her away on her wedding day.
The film also features Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Stellan Skarsgard and Dominic Cooper.
Mamma Mia! will release on October 3 in India.
