'Spy' Steals Box Office Kitty

By Carl DiOrio

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - A boffo $27 million bow for family romp ''Spy Kids'' has executives at Miramax Films crying, ``I spy a franchise!''

Robert Rodriguez (''El Mariachi'') directing such PG-rated fare for Miramax's Dimension Films banner might seem like an April Fool's joke. But Miramax co-chairman Bob Weinstein said he always intended to target a range of niches with the Dimension label, not just the actioners and slasher pictures it's been known for to date.

``I'm thrilled,'' Weinstein enthused. ``This is a tremendous success in one more genre.''

Weinstein said he has already greenlit a Rodriguez-helmed sequel. Its script is ready to shoot once the Hollywood strike threat lifts, he added.

Meanwhile, the weekend's other wide openers met with mixed results.

Teen audiences collectively forgot to set their clocks forward for Sony's ``Tomcats,'' an inaugural co-production with Joe Roth's Revolution Studios. Continuing a recent cold streak for teen pictures, the ensemble comedy disappointed despite an exceptionally ambitious marketing campaign that yielded only an estimated $6.5 million in box office and a fourth place bow.

Twentieth Century Fox's ``Someone Like You'' was roughly on target with a No. 2 performance of $10.3 million. The Ashley Judd/Hugh Jackman starrer, directed by Tony Goldwyn, skewed older and female.

MGM's ``Heartbreakers'' laffer finished No. 3, posting a modest 30% dip from opening grosses for an estimated $8.2 million. Sony's urban-oriented romancer ``The Brothers'' managed fifth place while falling 44% to $5.8 million.

Elsewhere, Sony's John Boorman-helmed ``Tailor of Panama,'' a John Le Carre adaptation starring Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush, grossed an estimated $2 million from only 199 engagements. The well-crafted $10,050 per-theater average should help the studio stitch together a successful platformed campaign.

Industrywide, the weekend returned 2001 to an upbeat path after three consecutive downturns in year-earlier comparisons. The latest weekend, at a total $101.8 million in estimated grosses for the top 10, was 15% ahead of the same weekend last year when DreamWorks' ``The Road to El Dorado'' family picture was a top opener with $12.8 million.

In a year-to-date comparison, 2001's $1.76 billion in industrywide grosses is $174 million, or 11%, ahead of the same period in 2000, according to data from box office tracker ACNielsen EDI.

``Spy Kids,'' starring Antonio Banderas and Teri Hatcher, represents Hollywood's fourth-largest March opening and the biggest-ever March bow for a family-oriented film.

``Spy Kids'' is ``sky-high kids,'' EDI VP Dan Marks quipped. ''That's clearly the story of the weekend.''

Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said the decent bow for ``Someone Like You'' helps eliminate the sour after-taste of box office lemon ``Say It Isn't So.'' The Farrelly brothers-produced comedy plummeted 65% in its second weekend for only $1 million in new grosses and a $4.8 million haul.

On the other hand, Fox's Tom Hanks starrer ``Cast Away'' rowed to an additional $654,000 in its 15th weekend for a $230.2 million total.

Executives at Sony -- which split an $11 million negative cost on ``Tomcats'' with Revolution -- said the picture's modest production budget means its poor bow won't draw much blood.

``We won't get hurt,'' Sony marketing and distribution president Jeff Blake insisted.

He added that Sony is sitting pretty with ``Brothers,'' a $6 million production that should end up with $30 million-plus.

Sony Pictures Classics' ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' and USA Films' ``Traffic'' continued to impress a week after multiple-Oscar wins, posting box office climbs of 9% and 6%, respectively, despite shedding a few screens each.

The martial-arts fantasy ``Crouching Tiger'' added $5 million in estimated new grosses to kick its total to a foreign-language record $113.7 million; and the drugs-war drama ``Traffic'' grossed another $4.2 million for a heady $113.9 million tally to date.

DreamWorks' ``Gladiator,'' which copped this year's Academy Award for best picture plus four other statuettes, saw a boost to 577 engagements from a previous 12 in a limited re-release. The Roman-themed epic grossed an estimated $448,000 to march the domestic haul north of $187 million.

Limited-engagement bows for Lions Gate's ``Amores Perros'' and IFC's ``Keep the River on your Right'' turned in optimistic results.

``Amores Perros,'' a Spanish-language drama, played to sellouts in a pair of Gotham theaters to gross $60,000 two weeks before a 150-venue expansion supported by a bilingual ad campaign.

``River on Your Right,'' a documentary about a gay painter's exploits among Peruvian cannibals, took in $13,361 in two New York locations.

The amnesia thriller ``Memento,'' starring Guy Pearce, expanded to 70 engagements from 12 to gross $717,410 for a solid $10,249 average and $1.4 million total.

New releases next weekend include Warner Bros.' ``Pokemon 3,'' Paramount's ``Along Came a Spider,'' New Line's drug-themed biopic ''Blow'' and Disney's fantasy laffer ``Just Visiting.''

The top movies in North America -- March 30-April 1

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the March 30-April 1 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

1. Spy Kids .......... $26,546,881

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $26,546,881

2. Someone Like You .......... $10,010,600

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $10,010,600

3. Heartbreakers .......... $ 7,802,097

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $23,139,589

4. Tomcats .......... $6,406,076

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $6,406,076

5. The Brothers .......... $5,603,339

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $18,104,947

6. Enemy at the Gates .......... $5,406,959

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $34,249,523

7. Exit Wounds .......... $5,251,569

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $41,098,695

8. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ..........$4,863,011

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $113,572,015

9. Traffic .......... $3,832,815

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $113,474,292

10. The Mexican .......... $2,527,703

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $62,176,424

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

John L.: The box office perked up this week with the debut of Spy Kids. That movie is a big success on several levels and if it holds up, expect the sequel to rushed before the kids get too old looking. Ashley Judd is continuing to prove that she may have some box office clout and is on her way to becoming a bankable star with the second place finish of Someone Like You. Even though Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman is in it, I don't think X-Men fans were the primary target demographic. Tomcats is the third raunchy comedy after Saving Silverman and Say it Isn't So to not perform well at the box office. It looks like the sex farce comedy is going back to the junk pile for now. Lot's to cover this week including a Video Nose Pick of the Week of "Red Planet."

The producers of Spy Kids were so confident that they had a hit on their hands that they green lighted work on the sequel before anyone had seen the finished first film. That is a brave move considering it also begs to be goofed on when the first movie comes out and bombs. Robert Rodriguez is not known for his box office hits, just for his economical film budgets. It is impressive that he was able to sell the studio his story of two kids trying to save their secret agent parents from the forces of evil. From what I have gathered it was probably not as difficult a sell as one would think. Movie studios love cash cow franchises that can be made every 2 to 3 years and get a profit and spark some merchandise sales. Action movies are the best at warranting a "further adventures of..." sequel. However, the government has been yelling at Hollywood for making movies that are too violent for children to see. So a studio wanted to make an action movie that was exciting but not too violent, and have it be appropriate for the 8 to 13 age group. Somehow, Rodriguez made an exciting action picture with a PG rating. This is unheard of nowadays. Most directors shoot for the PG-13 level so as not to have the movie perceived as a wussy watered down adventure story. A key thing in making a successful kids movie is to create a real fantasy that children have all the time. Kids like to play pretend spy, like James Bond, so do a movie where kids have to defeat evil adults and you usually have a hit. Home Alone did that back in the day with the what would you do if you had the whole house to yourself unsupervised. That movie made $285 million. I was not too impressed by the trailer of Spy Kids. It looked stupid and too Matix/Hong Kongy to be any good. Plus it had Antonio Banderas as the kidnapped Dad. He is hard to take much of the time. Looking at how the movie is promoted, I can see how it attracted so many young people this weekend. The special effects of the kids flying around and fighting look cheesy as some would say, but to the average non-CGI smart child, it all looks cool. Spy Kids received good reviews and is tame enough to entertain the oversensitive adults and wild enough for little kids to break out their grandfather's old Dick Tracy decoder rings and play secret agent.

Someone Like You is the story of 3 actors trying to make it in Hollywood. One has had good success, one has an Oscar nomination, and another is starting to become a big movie star. Ashley Judd is one of the few actresses out there that has a large male fan base. If you ask most males what do you think of her, they will say she is "hot." or "so hot." I think she is a good actress with her best work being the deleted courtroom scene in "Natural Born Killers," but I have never been a fan of her looks. Personally, I find her mom more attractive, but I'm a freak. However, I must say, she does look "hot" in this new movie of hers in which she plays a talk show host trying to find out the secrets of man/woman relationships by studying the actions of animals. Her character name is Jane Goodale which may be a play on the Jane Goodall who studies ape behavior. I only know of this part of the plot because I read the production notes on the film. The preview never makes clear what the plot is which probably hurt the film's box office. All I really remember is Judd in a tight tank top and panties jumping in the air in a half split in slow motion. Not a bad way to get more guys to see this romantic comedy. The evil boyfriend in the movie is played by Greg Kinnear of "As Good as it Gets" and "Talk Soup" fame who is still trying to find that leading man role. He seems to still be channelling his "Nurse Betty" work here and that is not a good thing. Kinnear has this weird acting style of appearing easygoing but at the same time seems to be goofing on everything he sees under his breath. This may be because of his Talk Soup experience where he had to make fun of Jerry Springer and Rikki Lake Guests for a half hour. He needs to play more characters that are more different than him. Maybe he, John Henson, and Hal Sparks should get together and make a movie together where they play long lost brothers who come together when they realize that they should never have quit their cushy day jobs to seek success outside the realms of their talent. Hugh Jackman shows up as the guy that has the best chance of hooking up with Judd. He is shown quite a bit in the trailers because he was the break out star in last year's X-Men movie. Here he gets to do double takes when Judd jumps up in the air in her panties. He will soon learn that it is best to keep wearing the claws and spandex. Someone Like You is your best bet for a date movie this week.

Tomcats was advertised as being the big outrageous sex comedy farce that has been lacking in the movie theaters as of late. Here is a tip for people. If a movie comes out that is a sex teen, post teen, post college, or pre age 30s and it has any person from the cast of the movie "American Pie," avoid at all costs. The only person from AP to have a decent movie was Mena Suvari in "Amerian Beauty" and that one is still overrated. Tomcats is about a group of guys who have this bet about which one in their group will be the last to be married. The last one left wins the pot that grows every year. Of the group, Jerry "Stand By Me" O'Connell and Jake "Contact" Busey are the last two left. O'Connell is in debt and needs to make the money so he sets in motion a plot to get Busey married. Hilarity ensues I guess. This is a somewhat convoluted plot that was not made clear in the previews. The movie was marketed as a wild sex comedy with some movie parody bits thrown in like O'Connell hanging on the side of the cliff like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. However, there were no gags shown that made anyone really rush out to see this. Lots of dominatrix and women in underwear shots, but yawn. Ashley Judd is better looking in her 2 second high jump in Someon Like You than the entire promotional work for Tomcats. Shannon Elizabeth from American Pie is the girl that O'Connell tries to sick on Busey, but then finds himself falling for her instead. Oh the irony of it all. The public is looking for a good rauch fest, but it seems we can only take one of these a year. In 1998 it was There's Something About Mary, 1999 American Pie, 2000 Scary Movie, but 2001 has yet to come out with a good one. After this, Say it Isn't So and Saving Silverman, the chances of high quality filth being good is very slim.

1. Heartbreakers seems to be breaking the hearts of the people who financed the movie.

2. Maybe Jennifer Love Hewitt should have jumped in the air in a tank top and panties.

3. The Brothers fell a bit this week in the top ten and does not look to be that big of a success as people thought.

4. I say, less D. L. Hughley, and more Gabrielle Union and you would have had another $10-$12 million weekend.

5. Enemy at the Gates is a movie that is not going away anytime soon especially since Ed Harris' Pollock movie can't get a decent wide release.

6. Exit Wounds is not the big comeback movie for Seagal, but it is doing well enough for him to probably get a flash back cameo in "Executive Decision 2."

7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon does not have long for the top ten, but as long as it is, Zhang will still be here:

8. When CTHD does leave the box office top 10, I have a special Ziyi pic that will be posted here in her honor.

9. Traffic gets competition next week when the movie "Blow" comes out with its own take on the international drug trade.

10. Even though Julia Roberts won the Oscar for Erin Brockovich, it was still not enough to get people to sit through The Mexican.

This movie was a disappointment. I knew going in that it was not going to be very good, but I thought there would at least be something to goof on like "Mission to Mars" hammed up mess. This movies starts with a pretty decent premise but the filmmakers have no idea what to do with it to keep things interesting. The plot is that in the near future Earth is so overpopulated and polluted that it will not be able to sustain life for much longer if something is not done. Since E-Check does not seem to be the answer, scientists develop a way to send algae to Mars to create oxygen so that the angry red planet can one day become habitable for human life. Wow, that actually sounds like a decent idea that real life scientists should probably be investigating. Unfortunately, after a promising start, the algae starts to disappear for unknown reasons. Time for some manned/female mission to Mars love fans as Carrie Anne Moss, Val Kilmer, Julia Roberts' boyfriend, General Zod, that guy from Saving Private Ryan that was cool, and some guy I have never seen before all travel to Mars to find out what the heck is going on up there. On their 6 month trip, we get to know these characters in pretty inane ways that end up having little or nothing to do with what happens. It is all false character development. These guys are scientists, mechanics, and geneticists, but none of it is put to any good use. One guy is called a hothead in voiceover narration, so every time he showed up onscreen I goofed on every word he said saying he is a hothead, he can't help it. The problem with Red Planet is that it is very slow and nothing really happens that could not have been done on the average Sci Fi Channel hour long anthology series. A killer war robot is let loose and shows up for some fake thrills, but as soon as it breaks out its own crouching tiger, hidden dragon stances, it is time to give up on this film ever being good. Carrie Ann Moss is somewhat wasted in this movie as the leader of the mission who spends the whole last 3/4 of the movie by herself on the space ship while the men go down to investigate the planet. She had the potential for a strong character, but she will be mostly remembered for not wearing a bra. Kilmer does his standard walk thru with no real enthusiasm. Oh for the days of the Iceman. Terrence Stamp shows up for 5 minutes as a philosophical guy looking for God, but is soon dropped from the plot. He gets more screen time than he did in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace at least. If you want to know more about his character you have to rent the DVD and watch the deleted scenes which are mostly made up of Stamp's character's backstory. I guess it was too boring to put in the finished film. For this movie to have been good, they probably needed some set up on Earth that showed the over population and pollution and the development of the algae to Mars plan. Take about a half hour to set that up and then have them go to Mars to investigate. However, since Mars really is a boring planet in the real world, it is hard for movies to make Mars interesting so it has to fake conflict like the AMEE robot attacks. No big green aliens show up, but the crew is not necessarily alone. There are attempts at making this movie about various life philosophies, but those speeches are boring and uninteresting. Poor writing is the biggest fault of the film. The special effects are second to third rate. Very little was done to make you think you were watching people on another planet and not the deserts of Nevada. Red Planet bombed last fall and after seeing this, I can see why. It's too bad that Mars is really the only planet in this solar system we can land on since movie where we go to that red spot on Jupiter would rule. Final Review: 1 1/2 stars out of 5; 4 out of 10; C-; thumbs down. Opening voice over premise is good, rest is crap.

That is all for this week's box office report. I wish there was something out there worth getting excited about, but alas there is not. Bye for now.