Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

My most anticipated movie of the year, The Bourne Ultimatum, has set a new box-office record for August in the USA, taking in over US$70 million in its opening weekend... around $15 million up on predictions.

The third instalment of the action-thriller series starring Matt Damon knocked "The Simpsons Movie" off the top spot, and beat the previous record of $67.4 million set by Rush Hour 2 in August 2001.

The film was the top opening of Damon's career, including his previous two Bourne movies.

The Bourne Ultimatum is the third in the Bourne trilogy films, very (very!) loosely based on the spy novels by Robert Ludlam (The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy).

Ludlam wrote just three books about amnesiac CIA spy Jason Bourne, although author Eric Van Lustbader has since added two more chapters to the Bourne saga (The Bourne Legacy in 2004, and the recently released novel The Bourne Betrayal).

A few months ago in pre-publicity press conferences, Matt Damon said this was the end of the road as far as he and Bourne franchise was concerned. However, in his latest interviews Damon has hinted that he may consider a fourth movie further down the track if "everything was right".

The Bourne Ultimatum is the latest in a long line of summer sequels at the box office. Bourne is the 11th sequel of the current season, with more to come including Ocean's 13 (also starring Matt Damon).


"Bourne 3" is released in the UK in mid-August... Fans in New Zealand have to wait until August 23rd until it opens in cinemas here, while the film will open in Australia a week later on August 30th.

* Official website: The Bourne Ultimatum