Wednesday, December 13, 2000

Carrey's 'Grinch' Speeds Toward $200 Million in U.S.

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jim Carrey's ``Grinch'' comedy remained No. 1 at the North American box office for the fourth consecutive weekend, putting it on course to replace ``Mission: Impossible 2'' as the biggest movie of the year.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, ``Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas'' (Universal) grossed about $18.5 million for the three days beginning Friday, taking its 24-day total to $195.5 million.

``M:I-2,'' which opened in May, took 43 days to pass $200 million on its way to a North American haul of $215.4 million. With four weeks on top, ``Grinch'' ties Universal stablemate ''Meet the Parents'' for the longest winning streak so far this year.

Having fended off three new wide releases this weekend -- ''Vertical Limit,'' ``Proof of Life'' and ``Dungeons & Dragons'' -- the Yuletide comedy next weekend faces challenges from the Mel Gibson romantic comedy ``What Women Want,'' the Disney cartoon ''The Emperor's New Groove'' and the slacker comedy ``Dude, Where's My Car?''

The Chris O'Donnell mountaineering thriller ``Vertical Limit'' (Columbia) did the best of the newcomers, scaling to No. 2 with $16 million. ``Proof of Life'' (Warner Bros.), a kidnapping drama starring tabloid favorites Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe, made off with $10.4 million at No. 3, while ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (New Line) rolled to a $7 million opening at No. 5.

Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd., which last week sealed its merger with Vivendi SA and Canal Plus to form Vivendi Universal. Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp., while Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are units of Time Warner Inc. .

The top 12 films grossed a combined $81.5 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, down about 1 percent from last week, but up 15 percent from the year-ago period.

``Vertical Limit'' stars O'Donnell as a mountaineer who organizes a search and rescue effort for his sister (Robin Tunney) and several others on K2, the world's second largest peak. It averaged a solid $6,935 from 2,307 theaters, the best score in the top 10. ``Proof of Life'' averaged just $3,848 and ''Dungeons & Dragons'' $3,369.

Despite mostly mixed and negative reviews, director Martin Campbell's thriller pulled in a ``pretty even mix'' of men, women and different age groups, said Jeff Blake, Sony Pictures' head of marketing and distribution. ``We have aspirations of being a $100 million film,'' he added.

Mountains of publicity about the stars of ``Proof of Life'' appeared to have little bearing on the film's so-so ticket sales. Ryan plays a woman who falls in love with Crowe, the kidnapping consultant she hires to find her husband. In real life, Ryan fell for the plain-spoken New Zealand-born Crowe, leaving her husband, actor Dennis Quaid, in the process.

``It's a very, very tough time of the year to open adult films,'' said Warner Bros. distribution President Dan Fellman, adding that he was pleased with the performance. The audience for director Taylor Hackford's estimated $80 million movie was mostly female and aged over 35, he added.

The Ryan-Crowe affair could have hurt sales because of the strong morality streak running though America, Fellman said, though he doubted it would have much of an impact overseas.

``Dungeons & Dragons,'' based on the cult role-playing game, attracted a core audience of 8- to 15-year-old boys, and surpassed expectations, said a spokesman for New Line. Critics trashed the movie.

Also in the top five was writer/director/producer M. Night Shyamalan's supernatural thriller ``Unbreakable,'' which fell two places to No. 4 with $7.5 million, taking its 19-day total to $77.4 million. However it lost 48 percent of its audience from last weekend, the biggest drop in the top 10. ``''Unbreakable'' was released by Touchstone Pictures, a unit of Walt Disney Co.

The best hold was enjoyed by eighth-ranked ``Meet the Parents,'' which slipped just 22 percent in its 10th weekend as it took in $3 million (66-day total $157.1 million).

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the top 10 movies at the North American box office for the Dec. 8-10 weekend, according to studio estimates collected Sunday by Reuters. Final data will be issued Monday.

1 (1) The Grinch ... ............... $18,646,520

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $195,646,175

2 (+) Vertical Limit ............... $15,507,845

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $15,507,845

3 (+) Proof of Life ................ $10,207,869

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $10,207,869

4 (2) Unbreakable .................. $7,538,063

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $77,403,181

5 (+) Dungeons & Dragons ........... $7,237,422

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $7,237,422

6 (3) 102 Dalmatians ............... $6,233,029

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $44,279,675

7 (4) Rugrats in Paris: The Movie .. $3,952,419

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $60,470,550

8 (9) Meet the Parents ............. $3,026,710

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $157,107,315

9 (5) Charlie's Angels ............. $2,626,076

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $119,250,039

10 (6) Bounce ....................... $2,592,226

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $34,119,117

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

``Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas'' and ``Meet the Parents'' are released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd..

``Vertical Limit'' and ``Charlie's Angels'' are released by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp..

``Proof of Life'' is released by Warner Bros. and ``Dungeons & Dragons'' by New Line Cinema, both units of Time Warner Inc.

``Unbreakable'' is released by Touchstone Pictures, ``102 Dalmatians'' by Walt Disney Pictures, and ``Bounce'' by Miramax Films, all units of Walt Disney Co..

``Rugrats in Paris: The Movie'' is released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc..

John L.:  The Grinch is living up to its rep by ruining Christmas for a lot of competing movie studios.  I think Home Alone 1 was the last movie to be this dominant at this time of year.  Vertical Limit was supposed to overtake the Mean One, but the producers and the hypers forgot that Chris O'Donnell is in the film.  The people behind Proof of Life hoped that the free publicity they received about the on set romance of Meg and Russell would spark some interest.  I think it shows that a lot of people sympathize with Dennis.  Dungeons and Dragons hoped to attract people hungry for a good fantasy movie.  Looks like there will be a lot of starving persons.  Lots to cover, so let's get to it.

Climbing mountains is a really stupid thing, and it never ends well for people in the movies.  Also, it's the same thing everytime.  Climb mountain, fall, catch yourself at the last second, fall again, avalanche, explosion, reach the destination, then realize... how the hell do we get back down?  Vertical Limit stars Chris "I should have been Nightwing" O'Donnell plays a guy trying to rescue his sister and her climbing buddies lost in the mountains.  The preview showed a lot of scenes of people falling off of high steep cliffs.  Decent enough action sequences, but nothing that would inspire people to take the time to go see.  This movie has opened fairly well, but the reasons it did not break $20 million is the stale plot and the mid card actors that are not famous enough to open a movie on their names alone.  O'Donnell is trying to find a career that I believe Matt Damon took from him.  He became famous as Al Pacino's buddy in Scent of a Woman and it looked like O'Donnell might be a future big time player.  Unfortunately, he made movies  with a not yet hot Minnie Driver and a should have remained on ER George Clooney.  He seems to be getting frustrated with the lack of success his movies are having.  VL should do alright, but the movie will make money because of it's action and not the actors.  

Truth is stranger than fiction, but when fiction becomes truth, you end up with bad publicity.  Proof of Life is about a guy who is being held hostage and his wife falls in love with the hostage negotiator trying to save him.  David Morse from "The Green Mile" plays the Dennis Quaid character.  Meg Ryan fell in love with Russell "I hope they make a Gladiator prequel" Crowe on the set and dumped her husband of several years.  When this happened, the makers of the film became nervous and did not know if promoting the affair in the movie would look tacky when put next to the real life home wrecking.  In fact, they even cut out the love scene between Crowe and Ryan so as not to look like they were capitalizing on the real life drama.  During the promotional tour of the film, when Ryan or Crowe were asked about their relationship they played it down and just said the other person was a great actor and person.  No answers about how how Dennis sucked in bed, how Dennis' career was never as good as Meg's, how Crowe needed to make that big jump to stardom by bedding one of the top 3 most popular actresses in Hollywood, or if Crowe wears the Gladiator outfit when he has sex with Meg.  Nope, that is their private business and has nothing to do with their job of acting.  Here's a tip to the promotional department.  Whenever there is a controversy surrounding a film, play it up as much as possible. If you do, then more interest will be sparked.  It was hoped that with Proof of Life people would be curious to see if they can find the moment when Meg fell for Russell and if her goo goo eyes she gives him are more real than acting.  Because the scandal was only played in the tabloids, then the film audience got the idea that Ryan was a slut and that Dennis Quaid was the husband scorned.  Ryan did not get any sympathy.  I personally felt sorry for Quaid since he has yet to make a movie that has made more than $60 million at the box office and seems to always be in Meg's shadow. Quaids lack of major success actually was a detriment to POL's box office.  Besides the scandal, it was hoped that Crowe would be able to open a film after the major success of this year's Gladiator.  Crowe cannot open a movie yet.  He still needs a plot that will interest the masses.  Violent gladiator action was an easy choice for a hit movie and DVD release.  Proof of Life did not have a strong enough hook to bring people to the theaters.  I think it is time for Crowe to use his real voice in a movie for once.  Romper Stomper 2 anyone?  On a side note, "Virtuosity" is still Crowe's best performance.

I used to play Dungeons and Dragons some 20 years ago.  It was a fun game that you pretty much made up as you went along.  I turned 14 and I sort of stopped caring about it.  At that point I decided to read more fantasy than to actually participate in it.  Around this time, one of the last Saturday morning cartoons I watched on a regular basis came on called "Dungeons and Dragons" about a group of kids transported to a fantastical world and given great powers and weapons to fight the evil Venger.  Great show and if Cartoon Network ever plays it, check it out.  Now we have a movie that is supposedly based on the old school role playing game.  Unfortunately for the makers of D&D: the movie, they are about 15 years too late for people to care.  The dialogue needed to make a movie like this is pretty stupid and sounds ridiculous out of context.  It narrows the audience down quite a bit.  What needs to be done is have little known actors deliver the lines and not well known ones.  This movie has 2 or 3 actors that should not be in the film.  The first is Marlon Wayans as Snails the thief sidekick to the hero, Justin "I was Jimmy Olsen" Whalin.  Wayans can be funny... sometimes, but his antics look out of place in a sword and sorcery world.  The modern street slang he throws in just does not fit and the fact that he is coming off of his small but significant role in "Scary Movie" makes people not buy him in this movie.  Thora Birch received some praise for her work in last year's best picture winner, "American Beauty" as the daughter of Kevin Spacey.  One would think she would be above a D&D movie especially one that makes her channel the spirit of Princess Amidala.  However bad a casting job it was on those two, who was the one that thought Jeremy Irons was right to play the lead villain.  Irons has won an Oscar and does not need to do a fourth rate Die Hard 3 retread.  His "time to die" line in the preview completely turned me off.  He looks very out of place.  His role should have gone to Bruce Payne who plays Irons' buddy.  He showed how to overact the Highlander 4 movie and should have been allowed to do that here.  I guess they casting director saw an early print of Highlander 4 and knew to give him a secondary role.  The other thing that hurts a movie like this is obvious CGI that does not look good.  The dragons flying around is cool in concept, but if it is not executed with good animation, then people start looking for the matte lines.  The Sam Raimi Hercules and Xena TV shows have ruined theatrical fantasy movies.  It will be a long time before the film going public will ever trust them.

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

1.    Jim Carrey got the proverbial early Christmas present when he found out he won't be needing to get Renee Zelwegger a gift this year.

2.    Look out Christine Baransky, JC is on the loose again.

3.    Since Unbreakable is not a blockbuster, it seems that M. Knight Shyamalan is going around denying that this was part one of a trilogy.

4.    MKS has said that he does not want to make sequels to any of his movies, but if his next one tanks, then Stuart Little 2 will start looking real cute.

5.    Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson have already done 3 movies together completing a trilogy of their own with Pulp Fiction, Die Hard 2, and Unbreakable.

6.    For the next Dalmations sequel, maybe they should try 103 Calico Cats to shake things up a bit.

7.    The makers of the Rugrats should be pleased to know that their movie has held up better than the Pokemon sequel.

8.    Meet the Parents is now the longest lasting film in the top 10.

9.    For Charlies' Angels 2, they should have them undercover as prison guards instead of prisoners just to be different.

10.    Looks like Paltrow and Affleck will be bouncing out of the top ten next week if we are lucky.

Next week comes my most highly anticipated movie of the holiday season, "Dude, where's my car?"  This is my favorite preview and it has 2 of my favorite comedic actors, Kelso from "That 70s Show" and Stiffler from "American Pie."  However, there is one problem.  It may suffer the same fate as "Coyote Ugly" and "The 6th Day" since DWMC is PG-13.  A movie about guys not remembering how much sex they might have had the night before will have a problem being good when none of the really good stuff can be shown.  I should have a full review of it for next week's report.  Until then, bye for now.