'Last Dance' Still First at Box Office
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Young female moviegoers ensured the nightclub romance ``Save the Last Dance'' remained theNo. 1 film at the North American box office for a second weekend, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.
``Last Dance'' (Paramount) grossed about $16 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period, followed by Tom Hanks' ``Cast
Away'' (Fox) with $11.3 million and the drug war saga ``Traffic'' (USA Films) with $8.2 million, both also unchanged in rank
from last weekend.
After 10 days in release, ``Last Dance'' has grossed about $46.9 million, and is on track to end its U.S./Canada run in the $70
million-$80 million range, according to Wayne Lewellen, president of distribution at Paramount. He predicted it would get a
boost next Sunday when the Super Bowl keeps males at home in front of TV and sends women to movie theaters.
The film, which cost about $13 million to make, stars Julia Stiles as a student ballerina who gets into some dirty dancing with a
black athlete played by Sean Patrick Thomas.
Its average of $6,302 from 2,539 theaters (an increase of 309 theaters) was the second highest in the top 10, behind $7,717
for ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' (Sony Pictures Classics), which jumped two places to No. 7 with $6.5 million.
Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. . Twentieth Century Fox is a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. . USA Films is a
unit of USA Networks Inc. . Sony Pictures Classics is a unit of Sony Corp. .
The top 10 contained two new releases, the British gangster comedy ``Snatch'' (Screen Gems), directed by the current
husband of Madonna, Guy Ritchie; and ``The Pledge'' (Warner Bros.), a psychological thriller directed by her former husband,
Sean Penn. ''Snatch'' debuted at No. 4 with $7.6 million, and ``The Pledge'' at No. 10 with $5.8 million, both new records for
their directors.
``Snatch,'' which stars Benicio Del Toro, Brad Pitt and Vinnie Jones, is a follow-up to Ritchie's similarly themed ``Lock, Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels,'' which grossed about $3 million in North America.
The new film pulled in the young male and date crowds, and Ritchie was ``thrilled'' with its opening, according to Valerie Van
Galder, executive vice president of marketing at Screen Gems.
The publicity surrounding his recent marriage to Madonna ''certainly enhanced the profile of the film,'' Van Galder said. But she
added it has already grossed $32 million in Britain and Australia and has yet to open in Japan, where Pitt is huge. The film cost
about $10 million to make.
Meanwhile ``The Pledge,'' in which Jack Nicholson plays a retired cop on an obsessive quest to find a child killer, surpassed
the totals of the two previous Penn-directed movies in a matter of hours. ``The Crossing Guard'' grossed about $869,000 and
``The Indian Runner'' about $191,000.
``The Pledge'' played equally strongly with males and females, and performed consistently well across North America, said Dan
Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros.
``Snatch'' averaged a solid $5,263 from 1,444 theaters, and ''The Pledge'' $4,510 from 1,275 theaters. Screen Gems is also a
unit of Sony Corp. Warner Bros. is a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc.
Rounding out the top five, holding steady at No. 5, was Mel Gibson's ``What Women Want'' (Paramount) with $7.0 million.
After 38 days, the romantic comedy has grossed $162.4 million. ``Cast Away'' has $182.1 million after 31 days, ``Traffic''
$46.5 million after 26 days, and ``Crouching Tiger'' $37.7 million after 45 days.
Two limited release films expanded this weekend. ``The Gift'' (Viacom's Paramount Classics), a psychological thriller starring
Cate Blanchett and Keanu Reeves, grossed about $3.5 million from 805 theaters. The Sam Raimi-directed low-budget film had
previously played on one screen in order to qualify for Academy Award consideration. It averaged $4,286.
``Chocolat'' (Miramax), starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, whipped up about $3.1 million from 658 theaters, up from
261 theaters last weekend, and a $4,635 average. The Lasse Hallstrom-directed fable has earned about $12.8 million in total.
Miramax Films is a unit of Walt Disney Co. .
Tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. reported the top 12 films grossed about $91.3 million, down 27 percent from last
weekend, but up 56 percent from the year-ago period, when ``Next Friday'' was tops with $8 million. New releases next
weekend include the Jennifer Lopez romance ``The Wedding Planner'' and the teen-targeted comedy ``Sugar & Spice.
not happened yet. In Snatch, he plays Franky Four Fingers the diamond thief who
gets mixed up in illegal boxing bets. This leads to all sorts of hilarity as
guys with stupid nicknames like Bullet Tooth and Brick Top scheme and double
cross everybody. Brad Pitt shows up as some sort of strange fellow named One
Punch Mickey O'Neil who is hard to understand. That bit was probably put in
there to give Pitt an excuse to not get his Irish accent right. Pitt should
probably avoid movies where he has to talk in a voice other than his natural
one. He definitely has Kevin Costner syndrome when it comes to foreign types of
speech. See Devil's Own for proof of Pitt's shortcomings. This movie was
directed by the "IT' director of the day, Guy Ritchie, aka Mr. Ciccone for
the time being. His last movie, "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels"
was a critical hit with some modest box office and this one has a similar tone
to it. Every year there seems to be a goofy Great Britain import like The Commitments
or Full Monty that gets a lot of attention but never really makes any real mark
on American society beyond the movie freaks. This movie is getting the big push
mainly because the director has made the news for marrying Madonna just as his
movie was opening in limited to wide release. The free publicity of reporters
wanting to know about his new sleeping arrangements helped open this film to his
best box office to date. But, unlike a movie like Crouching Tiger, Snatch does
not seem to be getting any word of mouth pub from the public. It will
probably make around $30 million when its all said and done and that will be
pretty good for this type of movie and may help convince Ritchie to add his wife
to soundtrack of his next film. 
justice
becomes an obsession that threatens his own well being. This is Jack's
first film since he won an Oscar for "As Good as it Gets" but it looks
like this one will not get the attention that one did. This is one of Sean
Penn's vanity projects to prove that he is and never ever will be Jeff Spicoli
ever again. This movie did not open that well, but better than most modern
Penn movies because Nicholson is still a hot commodity in Hollywood and this is
his first movie appearance in 4 years. However, the story of looking for a
child killer does not seem to be a subject most people want to sit
through. The obsession Nicholson has for finding the real killer may also
be transferred to the audience who would be equally obsessed if their child was
killed by a madman. Most people don't want to feel that way. This
movie was originally tapped as making the 10th place on the list, but Double
Take managed to beat it by a few thousand dollars. I wish movie studios
would have more confidence in the films they think are really good. Every
week movies come out that critics praise as being well made and acted that no
one gets to see because they are only in a few theaters. Crouching Tiger
and Traffic have the potential to make over a $100 million but they still don't
get in as many theaters or screens as Save the Last Dance or Cast
Away. Those movies were released wide immediately and the public was able
to make an immediate choice of what should stick around. Both were
released wide right away and are big hits. Traffic received the limited
release word of mouth treatment and is struggling. If the movie is of such
quality, put on 2000 screens and the movie might make its money back.
These poor release strategies are hurting movie makers who are trying to make
"important" films because it looks like people won't see them since
they don't make any money. One reason is lack of interest in plot that
hurts a movie's box office, but the other reason is the less theaters the less
money. Sean Penn should make a pledge to make a movie that will actually
interest a mass audience and still be of some perceived quality. I doubt
it will happen though. 
drinks not realizing that they are enticing people to attack them. But,
let's forget that this type of bar exists. Let's just say it is a movie an
run with it. The women are hot so how bad can it be? Real bad.
I am jumping ahead though. The movie has nothing to do with that
bar. In fact, the same movie could have been made without it. The
plot of the movie has aspiring songwriter, Violet, trying to make it in the big
city. She gets the job at the bar just to have a job so she can live in
the city. The problem comes when you have to sit there and see her
practice her horrible music while moonlighting as a bar slut. The movie is
predictable to the point of you thinking you might have actually wrote the
script because you can say each line 30 seconds before the actor does. For
example, when Violet asks the guy she is interested in to tell her about his
family, pretend you are playing Mad Libs and just say "I have no finally,
see, are you happy now? You know my big secret." Ugh.
Predictability is okay when the story is interesting, but you never really care
about Violet because she is so stupid. John Good plays her overweight
father who refuses to diet. The whole movie is setting him up for a heart
attack that leads to Violet's life altering decision, but the movie goes in a
different less dramatic direction just to do the swerve. Predictability
there would have made sense so they decided to abandon sensibility. Okay,
the main plot of Violet's singing career is just to give the movie a legit
reason to exist. The hype for the film is watching Piper Perabo and Tyra
Banks similate masturbatory sex on a burning desk. The 
Coyote
Ugly stuff is actually worse than the singing. For one thing, the women
just look stupid on the bar wasting their alcohol and nearly burning down the
place by setting mini fires. Enticing drunk men to get so worked up they
want to jump women and hump them in public is not a very good way to run a
business. Most of the actors in the film are fairly unknown, but Tyra
Banks is promoted heavily in the previews as one of the main stars. She
has no more than 10 minutes of screen time since she is quitting the bar in the
beginning of the film to study for the BAR to become a lawyer. I guess
that extra petty coyote cash won't pay off those student loans. So if you
are a fan of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, don't expect much from her
here. She does have very bouncy breasts though which was sort of
good. The other girls are okay looking but it just looks stupid for them
to act the way they do and then get upset when they get groped. I will say
that Izabella Miko as the Russian barmaid is hot even though you don't learn
much about her or any other character. This movie really needed to have a
harder edge to it and be R instead of PG-13. This hurt it's box office
since the guys that were curious about it decided to avoid the film because you
knew there would be no nudity and the dances on the bar would be very
tame. Ooo, she is getting water poured on here dark outfit. My
kingdom for a white t-shirt. At one point, female customers dance on the
bar with the barmaids in perfect synchronicity with the bartenders. It is
a real old school musical moment and everyone really loves traditional
musicals nowadays. This movie is hard to watch. It is boring and
stupid, not sexy, poorly acted, poorly written, bad music, and poor
direction. Leann Rimes comes in at the end to sing a song at the bar and
she looks completely lost up there on the bar. Fortunately her part is
heavily edited compared to the music video she did for her "Can't Fight The
Moonlight" song which may be the worst song of 2000. Avoid this film.
Rent Hollow Man or Battlefield Earth before even glancing at this debacle.
If it was a FOX movie of the week, it would have been more tolerable, but no one
should pay to see this. Young girls may enjoy it on a females are
empowered level, but no guy needs to see this film at all. Get a copy of
Maxim or Stuff or even FHM and flip the pages real fast to simulate motion and
you will have a better time than sitting through the very homely Coyote
Ugly. Final Review: 1 star out of 5; 3 out of 10; D; thumbs
down. A tolerable film for the 13 to 19 set, but the 2 to 82 year old
males should stay home and stare at Jules Asner and Brooke Burke on E!
Television's Wild On show.