By Carl DiOrio

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - "Rings" played box office lord, while the competition ganged up on "Gangs."

New Line's sequel fantasy "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" grossed an estimated $61.5 million atop the weekend box office for a boffo five-day bow of $101.5 million.

Warner Bros./Castle Rock's Hugh Grant (news)-Sandra Bullock (news) romancer "Two Weeks Notice" opened at No. 2 with an estimated $14.4 million, and Sony/Revolution's "Maid in Manhattan" rang up $11 million in third. Miramax's historical epic "Gangs of New York," which unspooled with fewer than half the engagements of "Rings," finished fourth with $9.1 million.

Paramount's kid toon "The Wild Thornberrys" had an even milder opening at $6.1 in sixth place, one rung below a $7.6 million second weekend for 20th Century Fox's urban comedy "Drumline."

But industryites believe both "Gangs" and "Thornberrys" could do better from Christmas onward, once adults are free to focus better on the former or to cart tots to the latter. "Gangs" -- which like "Two Towers" fetched a recent Golden Globes best dramatic picture nomination -- adds 500 runs midweek.

Still, yet another high-profile wide release joins the box office fray on Wednesday: DreamWorks' "Catch Me If You Can," which like "Gangs" stars Leonardo DiCaprio (news).

Paramount's "Star Trek: Nemesis" got shot down from box office orbit this weekend by the "Rings" phenomenon. The sci-fier -- the 10th installment in the studio's long-running franchise -- tumbled 76% in its sophomore session to $4.4 million in ninth place.

Industrywide, the weekend represented a 6% uptick from the same frame a year ago with $148 million in estimated total grosses, according to box office tracker Nielsen EDI.

Year-to-date, 2002 is 12% ahead of the same portion of last year at $8.66 billion.

The "Two Towers" bow is a record for December, besting the $47.2 million rung up a year ago over the first Friday-Sunday frame of franchise original "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings." The estimated five-day haul for "Towers" represents a 33% improvement over the first five days for "Fellowship," which took in $75.1 million over the same span.

Executives are so stoked over the sequel's heady start that there's already talk of the picture's approaching $1 billion in worldwide B.O.

"What we have set out to do is to become the No. 2 movie of al time after 'Titanic,"' said Rolf Mittweg, New Line's president of worldwide marketing & distribution. "From here on, it's all about longevity."

To accomplish that goal, "Towers" would have to amass more than the $968 million in worldwide box office for "Harry Potter (news - web sites) and the Sorceror's Stone," currently the second-best performance of all time after the $1.8 billion haul for "Titanic." "Towers" also would have to continue to outpace grosses for "Fellowship," which amassed $313.4 million in domestic coin over its entire run.

Warner Bros.' own sequel "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" so far has been unable to match the box office arc of its predecessor. But its $4.5 million weekend performance -- good for a seventh-place tie with Disney's "The Hot Chick" -- nevertheless gives "Chamber" an enviable total of $228.9 million through six frames.

WB distribution president Dan Fellman said the solid bow for "Two Weeks Notice" in a crowded marketplace makes him confident the picture will perform much like Bullock's "Miss Congeniality." The December 2000 romancer opened at $10 million and went on to gross an impressive $106.8 million domestically.

Miramax executives said the solid $6,064 per-screen average for "Gangs" -- second only to "Rings" among top-10 finishers -- is reason for optimism. And patrons' favorable comments in exit interviews could mean word-of-mouth will be strong on the pricey Martin Scorsese (news)-helmed saga.

"We're in for the long haul," said Miramax's chief operating officer, Rick Sands. "This is not a quick two-week burn."

Similarly, a Paramount spokeswoman expressed hope that the more modestly budgeted "Thornberrys" will quickly add to its early grosses.

"We think this is a good start for the movie," she said.

Reuters/Variety

LOS ANGELES, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the December 20-22 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers .......... $62,007,528

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $102,046,212

2. Two Weeks Notice .......... $14,328,494

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $14,328,494

3. Maid in Manhattan .......... $10,712,011

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $35,256,011

4. Gangs of New York .......... $9,496,870

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $9,496,870

5. Drumline .......... $7,125,270

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $22,359,766

6. The Wild Thornberrys .......... $6,013,847

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $6,013,847

7. The Hot Chick .......... $4,576,225

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $13,773,388

8. Star Trek Nemesis .......... $4,415,081

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $26,466,862

9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets .......... $4,371,410

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $228,821,682

10. Die Another Day .......... $4,030,346

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $138,494,620

Reuters/Variety

John L.:  That Ring of Sauron to rule them all is still the most powerful force in the known universe, as The Two Towers towered over all of its cinematic competition.  Peter Jackson's epic undertaking of filming J. R. R. Tolkien's trilogy of six parts in three movies to show up every December for 3 years and make back the $280 million spent on making the movies is a major success so far.  Geeks have united and it seems that the regular people are enjoying these movies as well.  Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant came on the strongest this week with a decent $14 million dollar take.  Either this is a popular date movie, or the girls went out to the movies while the guys dressed up like hobbits and elves.  Martin Scorsese has spent the last 2 years finishing up Gangs of New York costing around a $100 million to do so.  This somewhat weak opening hurts its chances of getting its money back, but its critical acclaim should keep it around to get a chance to improve.  It will be interesting to see if Leonardo DiCrapio's next movie, "Catch me If You Can" will open better than this since it has Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' name on the marquis.  Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can were supposed to open on the same day, but Gangs moved out of the way so as not to confuse the world.  I think the world would have done just fine.  The Wild Thornberry's is some Rugrat/Dr. Doolittle hybrid that has not received much publicity and its somewhat poor performance is not that surprising.  The absolute shock of the week to me is the absolute destruction of the Star Trek franchise as Star Trek Nemesis is the worse performing movie in the entire series.  Looks like a re-imagining is in order.  

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS - FULL REVIEW

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 - 1973)

This installment of the the Lord of the Rings covers Part 2 Books 3 and 4 which are concerned with Aragorn the human (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas the elf (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli the dwarf (John Rhys-Davies) searching for a couple of missing Hobbits, Perry (Billy Boyd) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan) while Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) need to get that nasty little ring that in the wrong or the right hands will destroy the world to Mount Doom and dump it into its lava filled maw.  These tasks are much more complicated than it would seem as orcs have kidnapped Merry and Pippin and someone forgot to take a map on the way to Mt. Doom.  The basic plots of these stories are pretty simple and what sets it apart from other standard fantasy are the themes and characters that are expressed through the various quests.  Love, friendship, bravery, good, evil, salvation, heroism, war, peace, choices, yin, yang, paranoia, life, death, comedy, drama, tragedy, pain, and talking trees are all a part of The Two Towers.  Whatever it is, don't say it is an allegory to World War I or II like many people think since Tolkien really hated those assumptions.  His stories are not to be taken as seriously as people have made them.  Last year's Fellowship of the Ring set up very well what is to happen and explained the different major characters very well so one does not need to read the books to follow the action.  Unfortunately, Bilbo got short changed in these books and movies since the prequel to all of this, "The Hobbit," has yet to be filmed as a live action film, only animated.  Check out the book or the cartoon to understand how important Bilbo really is to all of this.  Fellowship had a good amount of action, but there was a lot of walking around and story exposition to establish things.  Many people loved the movie, but several did find it a bit boring and long winded.  So, with The Two Towers, story explanations are suppressed greatly and the action is stepped up several notches with massive battles and dramatic encounters.  However, the problem with the second movie is that action is sacrificed for story telling and if for some odd reason you have not seen Fellowship, Towers will make little sense.  Questions like who is Arwen, why are the elves so special, Gollum does not look like a hobbit, what are helms, who is "she," who was Boromir, and how is it that 10,000 Uruk Hai warriors can't defeat 500 human and elf warriors?  If you have seen the first movie or at least read the book, then Two Towers is quite the movie experience.  There has been nothing like this ever seen on film.  Oh, some the sequences are familiar, but the presentation is quite unique and uses the special effects of the day in ways that have never been attempted before.  Who knew that New Zealand was hiding the landscapes shown in this film.  This movie would be awesome if you muted the sound and just stared at it.  Beautiful, stunning, awe inspiring, amazing, glorious, and where is my one way ticket are some of the words that will go through your mind as you stare in shock at how lovely this movie is to view.  What makes this movie so great is that most of the visuals of land are real locations and not created on a computer screen.  Those are real mountains, trees, flowers, and lakes.  National Geographic was sick that day.  When special effects are used, they are equally amazing.  The attack of the Uruk Hai on Helms Deep rivals the final battle in Star Wars Episode II, and in some ways surpasses it.  Watching it for the first time without knowing what will happen you will just throw your hands up in the air and say "I guess they're screwed now."  Watching this sequence, you know that most of it is special effects and fake orc warriors, but they look real enough to make you forget all of that.  The only real problem with this battle is based in its original plot.  Uruk Hai are very imposing looking, but they suck beans when it comes to hand to claw combat.  It is just too easy to take them out.  But, if they were better fighters, the movie would be about 15 minutes long instead of 3 hours.  The best special effect by far of the year is that of Smeagol/Gollum, Frodo and Sam's guide to Mordor the location of Mount Doom.  Yoda from Attack of the Clones had the blue ribbon prize as best CGI (computer generated image) character of all time, but Andy Serkis' motion captured performance of Gollum surpasses it.  Gollum is supposed to be a pitiful villain, but you will feel sorry for him and hope that Frodo is right when he believes there is still good left in the tortured hobbit who possessed the Ring for way too long.  The special effects are solid for Two Towers, but they would mean nothing if the human actors did not rise to the occasion.  The good news is that everyone involved shines.  Viggo's Aragorn gets to do more in this film, and in fact should be considered its star.  He gets the most screen time and has quite the side story with his leading the battle at Helms Deep and his tortured romance with Arwen the elf who will live forever while he as a human has a very limited life span.  Gimli is one of my favorite characters and he too gets a bit more screen time, though it is as comic relief.  Fortunately Gimli is allowed to shine in battle to offset any size weaknesses he has.  I am still amazed at the special effect used to make six foot tall John Rhys Davies into a four foot high dwarf.  It is still done better than the effects and forced perspectives used to make Frodo and his hobbit pals look like they are 3 and a half feet tall.  Merry and Pippin get a great amount of screen time as they have to deal with their kidnapping which leads them to the forest of Fangorn and the giant Ents.  The Ents are quite the site to see and could have easily been ridiculous, and they are, but they are used quite well here especially at the end when they have to go to action.  Ian McKellen gets much less to do here as Gandalf the Gray err White, err Gray, no I mean White.  He is still great, but due to storyline contrivances, he is gone for way too long and on screen for way too little.  I don't see him getting an Oscar nomination this year mainly because of that.  Elijah Wood looks to be in constant pain throughout the movie, but it is just him selling the agony of the burden that Frodo is forced to endure with being in possession of the Ring.  I felt sorry for him the whole time.  Sean Astin is excellent as Samwise Gamgee, and could legit be considered a supporting actor nominee in the near future.  The Frodo/Sam relationship is the key to everything that happens.  Without Sam's complete devotion to Mister Frodo, the quest would have ended in disaster long ago.  The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is one of the best movies of the year and is as good to better than Fellowship.  This movie movies a bit quicker than its predecessor, but the need to see the first, and the fact that the ending is quite the cliffhanger hurts it when saying it is much better than the first film.  When Return of the King is released next year, it would be better to just consider all three parts one movie and not separate them since they are all the same story.  After two amazing films, the third one has a lot to live up to, and by the looks of things, it looks like Return of the King should do just fine.  Final Review:  4 stars out of 5; 9 out of 10; A; thumbs up.  I can't wait for the 8 disc 4 hour director's cut with the Uruk Hai puppets and talking Ent robots.

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

1.    Two Weeks Notice has started out well enough to last much longer than 2 weeks in the top ten.

2.    I hope Two Weeks Notice helps elevate Sandra Bullock to a higher salary bracket since she is one of my favorite actresses especially after seeing her work in "Miss Congeiality" which is one of my favorite movies in the last 5 years.

3.    J Lo's new movie is doing pretty well, but something is still holding her back from being the super star that the media so desperately seems to want her to be.

4.    It took Gangs of New York 25 years to get made and 3 days to nearly bomb at the box office.

5.    Drumline is a low budget movie with no big stars and is doing just as well as the big budget Star Trek movie.

6.    The Wild Thornberrys takes place in Africa where once again a white person is shown to rule them all when the little girl, Eliza can talk to the animals.

7.    The Hot Chick is a movie that is a victim of a trailer that appears to show so many of the funniest parts of the movie that it becomes less important to rush out and see what happens to Rob Schneider.

8.    The American people have done what Klingons, Romulans, Probes, the Dominion, Cardassians, the Borg, and Rick Berman could not do and that is to finally end the Star Trek franchise.

9.    Mr. Potter may be the victim of diminishing returns, but $228 million is nothing to dive into ragweed at.

10.    Die Another Day has done well, but I beg the powers that be to never do a Halle Berry as Jinx movie.

It has been a hectic year at the box office as well as this web site.  My year in review for 2002 should be up around New Years Day.  Bye for now.