Tuesday February 22, 2000

'Whole Nine Yards' Tops Box Office

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The hitman spoof ``The Whole Nine Yards'' inched its way to a top box-office debut, taking in
$15.9 million over the four-day Presidents Day weekend.

The movie, starring Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry, narrowly beat another new film, ``Hanging Up,'' starring Meg Ryan,
Diane Keaton and Lisa Kudrow. Directed by Keaton, ``Hanging Up'' was No. 2 with $15.7 million.

Two other new movies made the Top 10 list. Pitch Black, the things-that-go-bump-in-the-dark sci-fi flick, landed in fourth
place with $14 million--a monster debut for the poorly reviewed Alien ripoff--and Boiler Room, the Wall Street-like
phone-scam drama, was in eighth with $7.1 million. 

The family comedy Snow Day managed to stick to third place for a second week and the cartoon The Tigger Movie only
slipped one slot to fifth, both attracting the kiddie demo. 

But Leonardo DiCaprio's The Beach was a wash-out, falling from second to seventh, earning just $8 million. This titanic
clunker is expected to gross little more than $42 million domestically (though it is reportedly doing better business overseas).

Movies benefitting from best-picture Oscar nominations last week included ``American Beauty,'' which broke back into the
top 10 with $6.6 million in its first weekend of re-release. Ticket sales rose 85 percent for ``The Cider House Rules'' and 48
percent for ``The Sixth Sense'' two other best-picture nominees.

The top movies in North America -- Feb. 18-21

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the
Feb. 18-21 Presidents Day holiday weekend, according to studio figures released Tuesday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Four-day Cumulative

1. ``The Whole Nine Yards,'' Warner Bros., $15.9 million, 2,910 locations, $5,469 average, $15.9 million, one week.

2. ``Hanging Up,'' Sony, $15.7 million, 2,618 locations, $6,001 average, $15.7 million, one week.

3. ``Snow Day,'' Paramount, $15.3 million, 2,704 locations, $5,644 average, $31.9 million, two weeks.

4. ``Pitch Black,'' USA Films, $13.5 million, 1,832 locations, $7,351 average, $13.5 million, one week.

5. ``The Tigger Movie'' Disney, $10.6 million, 2,755 locations, $3,849 average, $22.4 million, two weeks.

6. ``Scream 3,'' Miramax, $9.9 million, 3,368 locations, $2,935 average, $71.4 million, three weeks.

7. ``The Beach'' Fox, $8.3 million, 2,587 locations, $3,190 average, $28.7 million, two weeks.

8. ``Boiler Room,'' New Line, $6.7 million, 1,335 locations, $5,036 average, $6.7 million, one week.

9. ``American Beauty,'' DreamWorks, $6.6 million, 1,287 locations, $5,132 average, $81.4 million, 23 weeks.

10. ``The Cider House Rules,'' Miramax, $3.4 million, 857 locations, $3,978 average, $27 million, 11 weeks.

JOHN L.:  Friggin' President's Day.  The box office report was delayed because of the holiday.  Lot's of news this week. The top 2 movies almost tied each other this week, Snow Day is an official sleeper hit, I saw Pitch Black, and Boiler Room is not heating much up.  DiCrapio is living up to his name, and looks like the screaming has stopped. Oh yeah, the Oscar nominations came out this past week.  Fairly predictable.  The annual screwing of Jim Carrey continues. This report is being filed late this week, so let's get started.

Bruce Willis and Michael Clarke Duncan are back at the top of the charts with The Whole Nine Yards.  This also marks the most Friends cast movies out at one time with this Matthew Perry  movie, Kudrow in second place, and Cox bringing up the rear in sixth place.  Must see tv hits the big screen. Perry is now in his biggest potential hit ever.  Unfortunately he still continues to play Chandler Bing type roles in these movies.  A bumbling, confused, slight doofus.  Why buy the cow if you can get the steak for free or however that saying goes.  Bruce Willis is very inconsistent with his movies and is not really a box office draw.  The movies he has made that are successful like Armageddon and Sixth Sense became popular because of plot and special effects.  This is a somewhat smaller film than those, so Willis' name is more of a draw this time than usual.  Willis seems to be in full David Addison smirk mode.  Duncan is starting to come in his own with his Green Mile performance and his current best supporting Oscar nomination.  He went from bodyguarding Michael Jordan to needing his own protection.  He has potential as a future big star.  He needs to do one of those big budget action movies that Ahnuld and Bruce used to do.  He could play one of those cyborgs that try to stop Wesley Snipes from scaring Robert Deniro.  Or something.   I have a negative attitude toward this movie because it is another glorification of hitmen.  Hollywood script writers and producers love hit men movies and love to make them comical.  See Grosse Pointe Blank for proof.  If they are not comical, then they are about hit men doing their last hit and then getting out of the business, but then something goes horribly wrong and they have to stay in until its settled.  See The Killers with Chow Yun Fat or Assassins with Stallone for this type of flick.  Not my cup of java.  This movie has a chance to make some money.  Competition is still pretty weak out there and this movie is included as being one of the weak links.  It may be a while before we see a #1 movie make over $20 million.

The Friends attack continues with Lisa Kudrow bringing up the rear in Hanging Up with Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan, and Walter Matthau.  This is a loaded cast.  Each cast member has had their share of movie successes.  Kudrow got lucky last year with the Analyze This flick.  Keaton has been around for a very long time becoming famous dating Woody Allen and looking for chocolate bars.  Her last hit was in 1996 with First Wives Club, but everyone still knows her name.  Meg Ryan is one of the few actresses who can draw crowds and is deserving of those high end salary amounts.  Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts in a movie together could be quite interesting.  Walter M. is a supposed legend and doesn't need to prove anything anymore.  However, this movie has not been getting good responses and it looks like it will take a big dip next week at the box office.  The plot of 3 sisters coming together to watch their wild dying father die while talking on the phone does not seem all that intriguing.  The draw is to see how Keaton, Ryan, and Kudrow sort of look like they could be sisters, even though Keaton is just old enough to play their mother.  Matthau is more grandfatherly than fatherly at this point, but why quibble.  Nora Ephron's sister, Delia, wrote this.  Here's a tip, D.  If Meg Ryan is in your movie, make sure Tom Hanks shows up somewhere to kiss her or you are looking at losing money on your investment.  Hanging Up almost made the top spot this week, virtually tied with the short of a first down movie.  That tie was also why this report is so late. I wanted to confirm the winner.  Hanging Up will probably be in the top 10 for a while, but I don't think the producers will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day in honor of HU making huge dough.

I saw Pitch Black this weekend like I promised.  The movie was about this ship full of a rag tag bunch of rogues crash landing on a desolate planet area full of flying bat flesh eating creatures.  It is not made clear why there is a Muslim cleric, his disciples, a 13 year old child, and a convicted murderer all in suspended animation floating in space, but that becomes somewhat moot.  Just accept the cast as potential victims, heroes, and villains.  The biggest name in the movie is Keith David who last made an impact as Cameron Diaz's father in There's Something About Mary with his classic line of "I'm just fuckin' with ya."  The only other possible name running around is Vin Diesel.  Who?  He has made 2 movies that have been of note.  His biggest hit was Saving Private Ryan where he died in the middle of a street.  The other role he had was the voice of the Iron Giant.  If you have a DVD player, rent Iron Giant on DVD and watch the making of special hosted by Diesel.  That dude talks funny when he tries to be himself.  Pitch Black is not a great movie.  It is very typical of the genre and sort of paced strangely which is how many Australian movies tend to be.  Certain coincidences happen that only happen in movies and would not necessarily happen in real life.  The one I will focus on is how they land on the part of the planet run by creatures that thrive in darkness (pitch blackness) but are burned by the light.  The only way for the humans to survive is to be able to see in the dark so they can see when they are being attacked.  Problems like a total eclipse and rain taking out their torches cause many dilemas.  But, all is not lost.   The murdering psychopath just happens to have been fitted with glow in the dark eyes.  He has great difficulty seing in the bright sun without dark (pitch black) sunglasses, but at night he can see all including the sharp toothed monsters.  Whew, if it wasn't for him, they would all be screwed.  Diesel is pretty good in the role and he gets to show off his tough guy attitude and gets to fight the creatures and some of the ship survivors.  You are never sure if he is truly as evil as the courts say he is, or is there a heroic side that will save them all.  The other person that is good in this movie is Radha Mitchell.  She is the Ellen Ripley of the movie and is the type of tough girl that James Cameron popularized in the 1980s and 90s.  She has romance potential with 2 of the cast, but nothing really happens on that front because there are too many monsters to fight.  She was also the only one besides maybe David who showed some acting ability.   Mitchell is also somewhat attractive as well.  This movie has its share of kills, but nothing is very graphic.  There is one body shown with all of the flesh ripped off, but it just a body laying there. You don't get to see the flesh torn off as it happens which could have been cool the post mortem seems to be popular with modern filmmakers.  It is no graphic than your average autopsy scene on X-Files.  Since the creatures only run around in darkness, you never get a good look at them.  The longest views are from Diesel's point of view in his infra red Geordi LaForge type view.   It is a cheap device to save money on making detailed creatures.  Another thing that bugs me, and sci fi does this all of the time.  They land on one spec of land on the planet and we are supposed to believe that the whole planet is like this.  It's like someone landing in the Sahara and thinking the whole planet Earth is a desert.  Land in China and you think everyone is Asian.  I guess Earth is the only diverse planet in the universe.  If you want to go see a decent sci fi monster pic, this is for you.  It is not the best of it's genre, but not the worst.  I can't personally recommend it, but it is not god awful.  Virus with Jamie Lee Curtis was much worse.  Diesel shows up again this week in Boiler Room, so his career is starting to take off in Michael Clarke Duncan levels.  Also look for Rhada Mitchell to become a big star if given a chance.  Final Review:  2 stars out of 4; 6 out of 10; C; thumbs down.  If they had more back story of the characters, a little more graphic violence, and some point  I would have leaned more toward a thumbs up.  Wait for the DVD or VHS is my choice.

Boiler Room continues the trend of actors coming out with two movies at the same time.  Vin Diesel is in this and Pitch Black.  Ben Affleck is coming out with Reindeer Games next week.  Jamie Kennedy is in this and is cameos in Scream 3 as Randy.  I guess Hollywood is running out of actors or something.  This movie stars that guy with the funny name, Giovanni Ribisi who was last seen (barely) in 2 of the biggest bombs of 1999, Mod Squad and The Other Sister.  He has not had much luck for the most part, but he did get lucky working with Diesel in Saving Private Ryan.  Boiler Room deals with corruption on Wall Street.  Using corruption and Wall Street in the same breath seems to be a bit redundant.  The stock market is hot and volatile right now, so I guess the producers thought that it would appeal to the masses.  Ben Affleck is prominent in the previews, but he is not the star of the movie and only has a few scenes.  Affleck is the bigger Oscar winning name, so the marketers show all of his scenes in the preview.  The movie plays off the "greed is good" tag line of the Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen Wall Street movie back in the day.  No clever catch phrase this time means no booties in the stadium seating.   This movie did not open well, and I don't expect it to stay around in the top 10 next week.   

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

1.    Snow Day is once again the big winner this week.

2.    SD is pound for pound the biggest surprise hit of 2000

3.    Chevy Chase must be ecstatic to find his biggest hit since he left Europe.

4.    The power of the child continues with the second week box office take of The Tigger Movie.

5.    When the Friends cast attacks continues with Scream 3 sticking around, but not as well as the previous 2 did.

6.    Scream 1 made more money in its 3rd week than it did in it's 1st.

7.    The Beach is officially shipwrecked at the box office.

8.    The best picture front runner, American Beauty has returned to the top ten list.

9.    Annette Beatty has finally found her first hit movie.

10.    Cider House Rules also benefited from a best picture and best supporting actor nod to get it into the top ten.

This past week the Oscars gave out their nominations.  American Beauty is expected to win best picture.  I haven't seen it, but from the buzz, I think it will win. However, I think M. Knight Shamalongadingdong who directed the Sixth Sense will win best director because of all of the tricks he used in that movie that caused it to make $282 million.  Denzel is the front runner for best actor especially since he won the Golden Globe.  However, it is a toss up if he doesn't win.  Hilary Swank should win best actress for playing guy.  It's called Linda Hunt disease.  Supporting Actress is anyone's game, but since Jolly Jolie won the GG, I will say she looks good to take it.  The best supporting actor picks seems to be a 2 man race.  Clarke Duncan is a front runner for his John Coffey deal, and HJO for 6S and his dead people sightings are the ones to flip the coin over.   I think Osment may take it because he was actually the lead in his movie and had a very difficult part to play.  He should actually be up for best actor since Willis was more of a supporting character than the kid.  Duncan should win it since his role was smaller and more in line as a supporting character, but his part was probably the most important one in the movie.  I think Piano and Paper Moon disease might be in effect more than a Officer and a Gentleman/Glory ailment.  We shall see what happens.  I will have full coverage of the Oscars and what they meant in the report after they air.  Should be another dull show unless Shirley Temple decides to show up again and get the crowd into it.  Bye for now.