MUMBAI: Mark Steven Johnson's Ghost Rider™ starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, raked in $44.5M on its opening weekend (Friday 16th Feb – Sunday 18th Feb) at the North American box-office . Averaging a scorching $12,296 from 3,619 locations, the film which is based on the popular Marvel Comics character , opened higher than the $35.1M bow of National Treasure, Cage's previous best opening.

The visual effects-driven Ghost Rider ™ notched up one-third of all ticket sales for the weekend gone by and delivered Hollywood's biggest opening for 2007.

Ghost Rider™ opens across India on February 23rd, 2007 with over 200 prints and will be dubbed in Hindi ("Mahakaal") , Tamil and Telugu. This is Hollywood's first wide release in India in 2007.

From Marvel Comics, creators of Spider-Man™, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, comes a new hero… Ghost Rider™. Long ago, superstar motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) made a deal with the devil to protect the ones he loved most: his father and his childhood sweetheart, Roxanne (Eva Mendes).

Now, the Devil has come for his due. By day, Johnny is a die-hard stunt rider... but at night, he becomes the Ghost Rider, a bounty hunter of rogue demons. Forced to do the Devil's bidding, Johnny is determined to confront his fate and use his curse and powers to defend the innocent.

Ghost Rider™ stars Nicolas Cage (National Treasure, Gone in 60 Seconds), Eva Mendes ( 2 Fast 2 Furious, Hitch), Wes Bentley (American Beauty), Sam Elliott (Hulk), Donal Logue ( Blade) and Peter Fonda (The Limey, Easy Rider).