By Steve Gorman Steve Gorman – Sun Mar 22, 5:05 pm ET LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Nicolas Cage proved again to be a self-fulfilling prophet of the megaplex as his latest big-screen thriller, “Knowing,” topped the North American box office this weekend with an opening tally of $24.8 million, according to studio figures on Sunday. The sci-fi adventure, starring Cage as an astrophysicist who decodes an encrypted prophecy of global doom and races to save the world from cataclysm, marked the fifth-biggest movie opening of his career and his ninth No. 1 film since 1997. Besides underscoring Cage’s enduring appeal as one of Hollywood’s most bankable heroes, the film’s end-of-the-world scenario seemed to offer an ideal antidote for moviegoers weary of gloomy economic news. “In a doomsday scenario, dollars and cents don’t really matter anymore, and I think that’s really appealing to people,” said box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. “Who cares about mortgages anymor
Box Office Report: ‘Knowing’ cruises to weekend victory Mar 22, 2009, 01:44 PM | by Joshua Rich Categories: Box Office Knowingnicholascage_l What started as a close and unpredictable race to box office supremacy wound up an easy win for Nicolas Cage’s latest sci-fi flick, Knowing, which grossed $24.8 mil this weekend, trumping challenges from the hearty laugher I Love You, Man and the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen rom-thrill Duplicity. While I’m somewhat surprised by the outcome — Knowing fared much better than I, or most other box office prognosticators, expected — in the end the battle wasn’t even very close. Cage scored his third consecutive No. 1 opening in the past year and a half, drawing a diverse crowd that was evenly divided between men and women and about two-thirds over the age of 25. For indie distributor Summit, meanwhile, Knowing’s debut marks a second big win after last fall’s Twilight (which happened to hit DVD this weekend, in case you didn’t hear — yay!). I Love You, Ma