August 22, 1999

'Sixth Sense' Leads Box Office For Third Weekend

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Untroubled by three sub-par new releases, ``The Sixth Sense'' held pole position at the North

American box office for the third consecutive weekend, earning more than the next two movies combined.

According to studio estimates issued Sunday, ``The Sixth Sense'' pulled in about $24.1 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period, a

slip of just 6 percent from the previous weekend. By contrast the Steve Martin comedy ``Bowfinger'' (Universal), which retained

the No. 2 position with $10.7 million, fell 41 percent from its opening weekend.

``Mickey Blue Eyes'' (Warner Bros.), a fish-out-of-water Mafia comedy starring Hugh Grant, opened at No. 3 with $10.4 million.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, and its opening pales against the $27.7 million launch of ``Notting Hill'', starring

Grant and Julia Roberts, in May.

WB distribution president Dan Fellman said he was very happy with the opening, and noted that the movie was relatively cheap at

less than $40 million. The audience was primarily older females, indicating that the film's mob plot was not enough to bring in

young males. The film was produced by Grant's girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, through the couple's Simian Films banner.

After 17 days in release, ``The Sixth Sense'' (Walt Disney Co.'s Hollywood Pictures), has pulled in $107.7 million, and is on course

to double that, said Chuck Viane, president of Disney's Buena Vista Pictures distribution unit.

He said the tale of a child psychologist (played by Bruce Willis), who gains a fresh insight into his own existence when he counsels

a boy (Haley Joel Osment) who can see dead people has struck a chord with moviegoers.

``It's accessible to all age groups, and a lot of people are sampling the movie a second and a third time,'' Viane said, to reevaluate

the movie's shocking ending.

The movie is likely to top the charts next weekend as well, making it the first to enjoy such a four-week stretch since ''Saving

Private Ryan'' last July-August.

``Bowfinger's'' 10-day total is $35.9 million.

Rounding out the top five were ``The Runaway Bride'' (Paramount), at No. 4 with $9.4 million (24-day total $113.6 million); two

movies vied for No. 5 for about $7.1 million each, ``The Thomas Crown Affair'' (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) with a 17-day total

$42.3 million and ``The Blair Witch Project'' (Artisan) with a 40-day total of $120.5 million.

The other new releases did much worse: ``Universal Soldier -- The Return'' (TriStar), an action movie starring Jean-Claude Van

Damme, opened at No. 7 with $4.7 million; while the high school black comedy ``Teaching Mrs. Tingle'' (Miramax) opened at No.

10 with $3.5 million.

A TriStar spokesman said the ``Soldier'' opening was on par with Van Damme's recent releases. The original opened to about $10

million in July 1992 and finished up with $36.2 million. A Miramax spokesman declined to comment on ``Tingle'', which marks the

feature directing debut of Kevin Williamson, the screenwriter of the ``Scream'' franchise and creator of television's ``Dawson's

Creek.''

Rounding out the top 10 were Walt Disney Pictures' ''Inspector Gadget'' at No. 8 with $4.3 million (31-day total $83.2 million); and

Warner Bros' ``Deep Blue Sea'' at No. 9 with $3.8 million (26-day total $63.7 million).

Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd. Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX - news) Paramount

Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA - news) TriStar Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE - news) Miramax

Films is a unit of Disney. Artisan Entertainment is privately held.

The top 10 movies at the box office

LOS ANGELES(Reuters) - Following are the top 10 movies at the North American box office for the Aug. 20-22 weekend,

according to studio estimates collected Sunday by Reuters. Final data will be released Monday.

1 (1) The Sixth Sense .................. $24.1 million

2 (2) Bowfinger ........................ $10.7 million

3 (+) Mickey Blue Eyes ................. $10.4 million

4 (4) Runaway Bride .................... $9.4 million

5-(3) The Blair Witch Project .......... $7.1 million

5-(5) The Thomas Crown Affair .......... $7.1 million

7 (+) Universal Soldier -- The Return .. $4.7 million

8 (7) Inspector Gadget ................. $4.3 million

9 (6) Deep Blue Sea .................... $3.8 million

10 (+) Teaching Mrs. Tingle ............. $3.5 million

NOTE: Last weekend's position in parenthesis. + - new release.

Reuters/Variety

JOHN L.: Mob comedies suck, "killing" teachers in this day and age suck, kicking Frenchmen suck, and Heather Donohue suck. Creepy little boys rule, Julia Roberts=box office, Matthew Broderick is eeking out a hit, and my favorite movie in the last 4 weeks is still in the top 10.

I saw the Sixth Sense this weekend, and when things like that occur, I feel obligated to give a full review, so here it is. 6S has been number one for the last 3 weeks, and after seeing it, I don’t know why. The advertising for the film is a little misleading. Going in, you might think it is a horror movie in which gjhosts pop up every 15 minutes to go boo or howdy causing a little boy to freak out, and its up to Bruce Willis to save the boy’s sanity and stop the "dead people" from haunting him. That is all in the movie, but it is not the overall focus. It is played more as a straight drama with some supernatural elements thrown in. The scariest things in the movie are mysterious shadows that cross the actors paths at various points. The payoff of the identity of the shadow works sometimes, but is usually not as good as the set up. Also, if you watch the preview, you have seen the whole movie. About every big scene is included in it including most of the ending. The movie is playing as well as it is because of that preview. The point at which the kid reveals his dead people secret is about half way through the film. If you do not know what the payoff is, you as the audience will sit there and think "what the hell is this crap?" It can be very boring and pointless waiting for the point of all this. Most people going in know the basic plot, so they are willing to sit there and wait for the big scene.

The thing that keeps people coming back to 6S is its so called great ending that no one sees coming. It is so good, that people see it again just to see how it was set up. If you are reading this and have not seen the movie, then too bad, you should know better. I am going to discuss the ending because I need to try to figure out what the big deal is. Bruce Willis is shot in the first 10 minutes of the movie and then it jumps a year in time to Willis trying to use his psychology degree to help a boy get over the absence of his father and various other disturbing quirks. While this is going on, BW is trying to renew his relationship with his wife who has become distant to him ever since the shooting from a year ago. She ignores him in bed, ignores him at dinner, and she seems to be striking up a relationship with one of her coworkers. Through all of this she sits and watches her wedding video and takes anti depressant drugs. If you talk to Demi More, she knows how she feels. What I did not understand watching all of this is why would a wife get pissed off at her husband for being shot if she loves him so much. Willis is not a cripple, he can still get aroused, he is still working as a child psychologist, and the shooter is dead. All should be right with the world. Well, you see fans, Willis was killed when he was shot in the first 10 minutes, and for the next 95 minutes or so he doesn’t realize it and neither is the audience. When it is revealed at the end that Willis was one of the dead people that the little boy could see, the crowd in the theater gave out a loud gasp in shock and horror. Since I suck, I sat there and said but it was obvious almost the whole time. Looking back at the film as seeing it without prior knowledge I tried to see if there was any point in which I would have caught on to the truth. The 2 big scenes that fool the audience are the dinner scene where he seems to be talking to his wife and at one point she even looks up at him, and the one when the boy comes home and his mom is sitting in front of Willis as if they have had a conversation or were just waiting for the kid to come home from school. Watching those 2 scenes, anyone with suspicions of Willis being dead as a plot twist would be shut down. I agree, watching those 2 scenes would have fooled me, and only in retrospect do I realize how neither of them were shown really acknowledging Willis’ presence. There was only one scene possibly 2 that tipped me off to the ending. The first was when Willis went into his bedroom and his wife was asleep. He was talking to her, but she did not move. Oh, she is asleep and can’t hear him. The clue was all of the used tissues around her as if she was crying because she misses her dead husband. That would have made me suspicious, but I still would not have put it all together. The payoff for me came when she was taking a shower and Willis noticed her anti depressant medicine. At that point I realized that she was depressed because Bruce actually was killed and she misses him. If they were so estranged as we are lead to believe, Willis would not be coming over there all of the time, and she would not be looking at her wedding video all damn day. I will never know if I would have figured it all out before the last scene, but I hope I would have. I usually get curious about set ups like this, so I think I would have thought something was up. Regardless, the ending was cool and made sense when you look back at the scenes with Willis and other people not hearing him. Good gimmick. Also, I still don’t understand why the mother was poisoning the little girl, and if you accept the premise of that, why did the girl wait until she was dead to show the video. If it was me, I would have beat the bitch over her sorry head with the tape for poisoning my ass. Final review: 2 ½ stars, 7 out of 10, B, and a thumbs up. Not my favorite of the year, but it will appeal to people looking for something a bit different, and it is better than tripe like the Haunting and TBWP.

Hugh Grant once again riding the coattails of Julia Roberts releases another movie this summer with Mickey Blue Eyes produced by his Hilary Clintonesque girlfriend and Elizabeth Hurley. They did this before with that flick, Extreme Measures. My suggestion is to keep these 2 apart. Hollywood couples rarely work well together. Just ask Tom and Nicole. It is not funny to hear Garnt mangle the Italian accent. Fuhgetaboutit. It is a victim of blantant funny. The humor does not seem to be natural, sort of like Albert Brooks comedies, but more on him in the coming weeks. HG is somewhat of a good actor, and I liked him in 4WAAF, but he blinks and stutters too much. And everytime you see him in a movie you try to figure out how he cheated on EH the way he did. She must be a cold fish in bed. I expect MBE to be in the top 10 next week because competition is weak, but it will come no where near Runaway Bride money.

Jean Claude Van Damme is has returned in Universal Soldier the Return, a direct sequel to his other movie of similar namage. It costars 2 of my favorite performers, Bill Goldberg and Kiana Tom. This movie had no hope of success because no one has liked JCVD since Time Cop. That was the Belgian’s last good movie. Since then he has been a divorcing, drugged out, mush mouthed, Chuck Zito victim, but certainly not a box office draw. Time Cop 2 would have been a better choice, even though the tv series was cancelled after 3 weeks and the show 7 Days rips it off now anyway. I feel bad for the guy, because I used to enjoy his flicks, even US 1 with Dolph Lundgren. Another problem is the appearance of Bill Goldberg. BG is a popular wrestler in WCW, but as of late, his pops have not been as large as they were a year ago when he was WCW champ. In fact, WCW has not done a lot to promote the fact that DA MAN was in the movie except for commercial breaks and that horrible Crush Em song by Megadeth that Goldberg comes out to now. It also did not help that WCW’s ratings have been in the proverbial toilet the last 6 months. Goldberg is this invincible warrior on TV, but showing JCVD dodging the trademark spear is not going to help box office. A clip of Goldberg giving the jackhammer to Van Damme would have helped things, but you know the former Atlanta Falcon is doing the job. The person they should have focused the marketing on was Kiana Tom, hoo ha. She is the best fitness instructor ever on that Kiana’s Flex Appeal on ESPN2. I watch it all the time. I love it when she starts the show with "today we are going to work on our chests." At that point a bag of chips and a gangsta lean go in full effect. She is a hot little Hawaiian. She is in almost no clips in the preview, and the ones she does pop up in she is fully clothed. Clue to Mic Rodgers the director, as they say in the WWF, "WE WANT PUPPIES!"

And finally today, we have our third new movie of the week, Kil…er.. I mean Teaching Mrs. Tingle. What a dumb title. TMT was originally called Killing Mrs. Tingle, but Kevin "Dawson’s Creek has the best actors in the universe" Williamson thought that the original title was too aggressive and changing it would be for the better. It also did not help that 2 wacked out teenagers shot up their school in Littleton Colorado. The preview makes the premise a little interesing about 3 high schoolers getting revenge on their evil teacher. Forget about the real world, lets just look at it as a film with no outside influence. Not liking a teacher is a common theme in a young person’s life, and getting revenge on them in some outlandish way would be cool. Killing them would not be good because then you go to jail and end up talking to loser kids about how to get raped in prison. Teaching a teacher is redundant since they are know-it-alls anyway. So the question is, how do you get revenge on that asshole teacher that gave that D- or even that F. How about killing/teaching with kindness. The teach expects you to freak out and go postal, day trader, or heavy internet user on them, but instead why don’t you bring them flowers, a cake, chocolate, an apple, mow their lawn, a nude photo of yourself, a pet gerbil, $100, the new Britteny Spears album, a guest spot on the Drew Carey Show, a new ruler, a protractor up their ass, a home computer with free Compuserve for 3 years, passwords to www.farmlife.com, a hummer, lick the alphabet, get them a pet cat, make a web page dedicated to the teacher, an air freshener, a dramamine after seeing TBWP, a DVD player, get them To Sir With Love on DVD, and finally, just kiss them on the lips, take a picture of it and send it to the Board of Education and say that the teacher fondled you in the wrong way and should be suspended. That always gets them. A crossbow and a fist fight are not going to do it. Also, Katie Holmes sucks. She is another death knell to box office grosses. Keep that teen angst crap on television. Michelle Williams and James Van Der Beek (wtf) should stay off the big screen as well. I am sick of writing about their cinematic antics. I will say this, Holmes is sort of hot looking in that school girl outfit, but she still sucks.

The rest of the B.O: Bowfinger is fading at the box office. It should stop at just under $60 million when it is said and done. Eddie Murphy can draw an audience, but Martin cannot. Heather Graham is hot, but like Denise Richards, it won’t make a guy go see her in a movie. Julia Roberts rules the females in lead box office bounty. Look for Roberts to get $25 milllion a picture within 2 years, unless she stars in a movie with her brother Eric. The Blair Witch phenom is almost over, thank goodness. I will have a lot to say about this movie and its impact on the world in my Summer of 1999 review coming up the week after labor day weekend. And boy, do I have a lot to say about that movie. Thomas Crown is doing better than it seemed it would after its lackluster opening. It will do about the average Brosnan/Russo amount when outside of a real mainstream picture. Here is a hint to the marketers of this film. It was not a good idea to stress how old Rene Russo is in the promotion. That is not a good selling point in this sexist society. Guys won’t jump to see something like that. Russo’s nude scene should have been the selling point, not how wrinkly in the face she is for a 45 year old women, but still looks great. Inspector Gadget has done well and is a better hit than Godzilla. I am sort of happy for it because I am a big fan of the cartoon. Deep Blue Sea has hung in there again this week. One of these days when I learn how to make a web site, I may just dedicate it to this film. It now has the distinction of being the most underrated movie of the year. It may also end up in my DVD collection if its not careful.

That is it for this week’s box office report. Sixth Sense has no competition until about November, from what I can see. The Muse, Stir of Echoes, and the 13^th Warrior are coming soon. The Muse is Albert Brooks, and that is Woody Allen level box office death there. SOE has a Sixth Sense type of preview and may do well, but the jury is still deliberating. Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Griffith has to suck just because ahh how do you say ah yes, Banderas sucks!! Bye for now.