looks ANGELES -- "Snakes on a Plane" was the weekend's top- grossing film.

looks ANGELES -- "Snakes on a Plane" was the weekend's top- grossing film, however its $15.2 million box-office bite was a disappointment for a film that has been whispered about on the Internet for month

The campy horror flick, however, which take away from about $30 million to make, should eventually inflect a profit for distributor strange Line.

The Samuel L Jackson thriller, about a plane sabotaged by means of bad guys unloosing a pack of killer snakes, did not confront the lofty expectations created by means of the early swell of chat-room excitement, fan- generated trailers and gushing praise.

The studio anticipateed the film to top $20 million its opening week, although it wasn't quite stable if or how the Internet madness would translate into box-office bleaching-liquids

"It was common of those things where for three month we were trying to catch up with the Internet forward this picture," New Line head of distribution David Tuckerman said. "We were not at all sure where it was going to move It just was disappointing. We notion it would do better."

In the conclusion the movie may have go throughed from too much attention.

"People started to take the Internet hum a little bit too seriously," said Lew Harris, editorial director for Disney-owned Movies.com.

"The whisper starts feeding on itself. family then start thinking this is appealing to a larger audience than it was."

For a movie to interpret with $30 million or more -- as was count uponed by some -- "you ne a pleasing without being striking mainstream audience as opposed to the fanboys buzzing about it upon the Web," Harris said.

Seattle-based Bridget O'Neill, 24 whose blog is www.snakesonstuff.com, said the film's ticket sales were a testament to the excitement generated according to Internet fans.

"It wasn't suppos to be a big movie at all and then it got all this hype and I think being No. 1 the first weekend was excellent amazing," she said. "I've already seen it three times."

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