Monday, July 17, 2000

North American Box Office Is Conquered by 'X-Men'

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Going from comic book superheroes to box office superstars, ``X-Men'' stormed the North American box office with a $57.5 million launch, the fourth highest three-day opening ever, according to studio estimates issued Sunday.

The latest in a string of summer movies targeted at young males, the $75 million-budgeted ``X-Men'' boasts an ensemble cast including Australian unknown Hugh Jackman, stage veterans Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, Oscar winner Anna Paquin and pinups Famke Janssen and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.

Despite lukewarm reviews, the film stole viewers from the previous weekend's champ, ``Scary Movie'' (Miramax Films), which slipped to No. 2 with $26.1 million (10-day total, $89 million). ``The Perfect Storm'' (Warner Bros.) fell one place to No. 3 with $17.5 million in its third weekend (17-day total, $128.9 million).

``X-Men'' replaces ``Scary Movie'' as the second-biggest opening of the year, after ``Mission: Impossible 2'' ($57.9 million). It also ranks No. 4 in the overall three-day standings, behind three sequels -- ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park,'' ``Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace'' and ''M:I-2.'' It averaged a stunning $19,000 per theater.

Expectations Exceeded

Executives at Twentieth Century Fox, which released ''X-Men'' in 3,025 theaters across the United States and Canada, had gone into the weekend targeting a $35 million opening at best.

As it turned out, the film opened to $21 million on Friday alone, according to producer Ralph Winter. Exit surveys indicated males made up 65 percent of the audience that day, while the overall audience was evenly split on either side of 25 years of age. Fox is a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc.

Based on a Marvel comic book series launched in 1963, ''X-Men'' pits mutant superheroes led by the telepathic Xavier (Stewart) against a band of renegades led by Holocaust survivor Magneto (McKellen). The film was directed by Bryan Singer, best known for crime drama ``The Usual Suspects.''

Marvel Studios President Avi Arad said he had received death threats on the Internet from hard-core ``X-Men'' fans during the making of the film. But he reported that ``the geeks are elated'' by the comic book's transition to the big screen.

Although the large cast was ``confusing as hell,'' Arad said Singer had succeeded in making ``a sentimental movie in the middle of an action movie, and that's not an easy thing to do.''

Marvel is a unit of Marvel Enterprises Inc. (NYSE:MVL - news).

Winter said the film's ``emotionally engaging'' characters were a major part of its appeal. All the cast members have been signed for two sequels, but no work has begun yet. The film also opened strongly in Australia, though no figures were available, and launches in Britain in mid-August, Winter said.

Ticket Sales Up

Overall ticket sales rose for the third consecutive weekend when compared with year-ago figures. According to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, the top 12 movies grossed $148.8 million, up 9 percent over last weekend and up 39 percent over last year, when Stanley Kubrick's ``Eyes Wide Shut'' opened at No. 1 with $21.7 million.

Despite the success of such movies as ``Gladiator,'' ''M:I-2'' and ``The Perfect Storm,'' the box office has been running behind last year's pace. New releases next weekend include teen comedy ``Loser,'' supernatural thriller ``What Lies Beneath'' and teen thriller ``The In Crowd.''

Rounding out this weekend's top five were ``The Patriot'' (Columbia Pictures) at No. 4 with $11 million (19-day total, $83.2 million) and ``Disney's The Kid'' (Walt Disney Pictures) at No. 5 with $10.5 million (10-day total, $30 million). The latter, starring Bruce Willis, enjoyed the best hold of all the movies in the top 10, losing just 17 percent of its audience. Conversely, ``Scary Movie'' fell 38 percent.

Among the films opening in limited release were ``Chuck & Buck'' (Artisan Entertainment), a homoerotic stalker comedy, with $70,000 from 10 theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Canadian melodrama ``The Five Senses'' (Fine Line Features) with $28,000 from two screens in New York.

Miramax and Walt Disney Pictures are units of Walt Disney Co. Warner Bros. and Fine Line are units of Time Warner Inc. Columbia is a unit of Sony Corp. Artisan 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 July 14-16 weekend, according to studio estimates collected Sunday by Reuters. Final data will be issued Monday. .

1 (+) X-Men .................. $57.5 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $57,500,000

2 (1) Scary Movie ............ $26.1 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $89,000,000

3 (2) The Perfect Storm ...... $17.5 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $128,900,000

4 (3) The Patriot ............ $11.0 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $83,200,000

5 (4) Disney's The Kid ....... $10.5 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $30,000,000

6 (5) Chicken Run ............ $7.8 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $76,900,000

7 (6) Me, Myself & Irene ..... $5.7 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $77,100,000

8 (8) Big Momma's House ...... $2.8 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $108,200,000

9(10) Gone in Sixty Seconds .. $2.6 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $91,000,000

10 (7) Shaft .................. $2.5 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $66,000,000

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

``X-Men,'' ``Me, Myself & Irene'' and ``Big Momma's House'' are released by Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc..

``Scary Movie'' is released by Dimension Films, a unit of Walt Disney Co.'s Miramax Films. ``Disney's The Kid'' is released by Walt Disney Pictures, and ``Gone in Sixty Seconds'' by Touchstone Pictures, also units of Disney.

``The Perfect Storm'' is released by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc..

``The Patriot'' is released by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp..

``Chicken Run'' is released by DreamWorks SKG, which is privately held.

``Shaft'' is released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.

JOHN L.:  The mutant menace ran roughshod over this week's box office.  A little comic book that started in 1963 has spawned one of the biggest openings in movie history.  Whoda thunk it?  X-Men is also a movie that most movie studios were afraid of since no other movie was released wide this weekend.  This also marks the first blockbuster movie based on a Marvel Comics superhero.  The only other one that had box office success was "Blade," but X-Men has almost made more money in 3 days than Blade made in its entire run.  I saw X-Men this weekend and will have my full review.  I also will have a list of my 5 best and worst superhero movies.  "Scary Movie" continues to shock the industry with its massive success.  It looks like it will probably gross more than the original Scream.  Even though the tag line says that there will be no sequel, the producers of the movie are already prepared to make part two with a "we lied" promo in the works.  Let's see if X-Men is worth all the hype.

X-MEN - FULL REVIEW:

I am a fan of the X-Men comic books.  I read them still to this day.  I am familiar with all of the major characters whether they be hero or villain. The X-Men movie has been talked about since the 1970s, but the last 2 years has had the most hype since financial backing was finally gained, a script written, and a cast ... uhh cast.  However, me, as well as thousands of comic book fans were very leery of an X-Men movie.  Superhero movies are notorious for being awful and untrue to their source material.  Marvel Comics has a horrible track record when it comes to making movies base on their characters.  Captain America, The Fantastic Four, and the Punisher have all been made into movies that were supposed to get released theatrically, but went straight to video and straight to the bargain bin.  CA had its superhero out of the costume for three fourths of the film.  Fantastic Four was made for about 12 cents with all of its props bought from the local Dollar Tree store.  Punisher character in the comic wears this cool costume with a giant skull on it to distract the bad guys, but in the movie, that is eliminated for the generic black leather jacket and a knife with a skull carved on top.  I have seen all 3 of those movies and they are all pretty lame with Punisher being the only watchable one if you forget it has anything to do with a comic book.  Marvel has always been more successful on the small screen than the big one especially in terms of Saturday morning cartoons.  Its Spiderman, Hulk, and X-Men shows have been very good and very well received.  I am a fan of them all.  They also stayed pretty close to the comic and changed very little.  Also, I am a fan of the old Incredible Hulk tv show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno.  So, when motivated, Marvel can produce a good product.  Now was the time to strike with an X-Men movie.  For one thing, the DC superheroes, Batman and Superman seemed to have dried up.  The last 2 Superman movies were some of the worst cinematic experiences I and the general public has ever had.  The first 3 Batman movies from 1989 to 1995 were pretty good.  I am not the biggest fan of them, but they were generally well made and it is a comic book story so you have to give it some slack for being silly.  However, Batman and Robin failed miserably and seemed to destroy any hope of a good comic book film.  Then came Wesley Snipes in Blade and confidence was restored.  That movie had a violent and cool streak about it that worked and that sequel should be out in the next 2 years or so.  The other thing that helped X-Men is the success of the Matrix.  Its dark, moody, and chaotic mystical style greatly influenced the look of X-Men. 

So, after all of that, did director, Bryan (The Usual Suspects) Singer make a good movie or is it another Superman 4: the Quest for Peace?  The short answer is yes.  X-Men the movie should please most fans of the comic book, and satisfy any person unfamiliar with the characters who is looking for an entertaining action sci fi adventure.  People who are confused about how mutants and the Holocaust can be mentioned in the same sentence should stay away though.  The movie did what it was supposed to do.  It kept the essence and the key points of the comic and changed the things necessary to make it look good on screen.  When the previews first came out, the biggest criticism was that the costumes did not match the comic book.  This argument does not hold up since the X-Men rarely stay in the same costumes for too long and most of the time they do look silly like the yellow ones the new mutants wear.  The movie put them in all black which makes things look a little cooler in the movies.  The movie outfits looked okay and were not too outlandish to turn off non fans of the characters.  All black is sort of dull, but key parts of their costumes or look were there to remind you of the source material.  Wolverine had his sideburns and claws, Cyclops had his ruby red visor, Storm had her white hair, Professor X was bald and wheelchair bound, magneto had his helmet, and Sabertooth looked much like the comic book.  The things that they got wrong were  Rogue's overall look and accent.  In the comic she has a thick southern brogue, but Anna Paquin only uses it a few times and much like the cast of Perfect Storm forgets what part of the world she comes from.  They do fix her look near the end to look like the comic book mutant who can absorb the energy or mutant power of other people which saves her from being a total mess.  Halle Berry as Storm is the weakest of the group.  She is given little screen time and maybe 10 or 12 lines of dialogue as well as the worse line in the movie when she battle Toad.    Also, her character in the comic is from Africa and has a claustrophobia problem due to being trapped in a collapsed building.  This is never mentioned in the film and could have helped establish the character a bit.  Berry tries an accent in one scene but fails miserably and just drops it.   However, Berry is attractive in her outfit and her powers of controlling the weather are used pretty well in the film.  Famke Jansen is okay, but is also underused and never really gets to show off her mutant power.  She is also supposed to be romantically linked with Cyclops, but they don't really match up well.  Jansen also looks the least like the comic character from any other in the movie.  The best used X-man in the film is Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman.  His portrayl comes close to imitating the source material.  He has most of the mannerisms and catch phrases and the attitude.  He says 'bub," but he does not say "I am the best at what I do."  His origins are still a mystery at the end of the movie, but there is hint of a side adventure in the sequel to flesh his story out a bit.  I have read the comic that explains much of Wolverine's origins and it would make an interesting movie by itself.  The other actor I was impressed with was Rebecca Romjin Stamos as Mystique. She has one line in the movie but comes off as the biggest threat since she can shapeshift into any person and mimic their powers to some extent.  She has the best fight scene in the movie against Wolverine, and is my nominee for sexiest babe of the Summer of 2000.  She went through several hours a day to get her blue make up and appliance attached to her skin.  She gave it her all and should get an MTV or Blockbuster award for best supporting actress.   The movie works because it mixes all of these good things and questionable things together to make a fairly coherent film.  It is good enough to satisfy the hardcore fans who were hoping to see a good superhero film, and it was not to intense to turn off the people who don't normally enjoy movies like this.  This means the actions scenes tend to be short and not too dramatic until the end.  The best sequence is the one where Magneto and Professor X have a stand off and have to use cunning and strategy to fight each other with limited violence.  I have seen a lot of the promotion for this movie and there is one thing that always tees me off when movies like this are made.  The interviewer always asks the actor if they were familiar with the comic, and they always say no, they never heard of it until they received the script.  Bryan Singer even told the actors not to read the comic and interpret their characters based on the script and not a Stan Lee or Chris Claremont intergalactic mutant tale.  It seems that the less you know about something, the better chance you have to get the job when it comes to making a movie about a comic book. And for you hardcore X-Men comic fans look for cameos by Kitty "Shadowcat" Pride as she walks through a door, Bobby "Iceman" Drake in a significant cameo, and if you don't blink you will catch one of my favorite mutants, Jubilee studying, possibly Quicksilver playing basketball by being so quick he can pass the ball to himself to score, and as an extra bonus, Ray "Toad" Park pays homage to his role as Darth Maul in "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.   X-Men is good and I will be there for the sequel.  I hope it has a bit more action, more mutants, and more backstory for the characters.  You are probably looking at a franchise.  Final review:  3 1/2 stars out of 5; 7 1/2 out of 10; B; thumbs up.  Be warned, it is a comic book movie and the action is not fast and furious.  Not everyone's taste, but for what it is intended to do, entertain, it does do that. 

TOP 5 COMIC BOOK MOVIES EVER MADE

1.    Superman - Christopher Reeve had the look and the special effects to back him up.  Gene Hackman was perfect as Lex Luthor. And I still say "whoa Jack, that's a bad outfit" at least once a month.   The ending where Superman turns back time is one of the greatest moments in movie history.  You could believe a man could fly after seeing this flick.   The perfect superhero movie.

2.    Batman (1989) - Michael Keaton was vilified by the media and the fans when he was chosen to play the caped crusader.  Keaton was too small, too goofy, too not Bruce Wayne. However, Jack Nicholson signed on as the Joker and was a perfect choice and he took over the movie since I think the makers wanted to have him to fall back on if Keaton did not work.  Keaton did work and the movie did for the most part due in large part to Tim Burton's direction and dark look of the film getting influenced by the classic Frank Miller "The Dark Knight Returns" comic.  This is still one of the most hyped movies of all time.  It is not perfect, but the aura of it makes it one of the best.  The series fell to Hell soon after this, and Keaton knew it and got out just in time.  

3.    X-Men - I have given my thoughts on this flick.  It took the comic seriously and kept the fun of the comic.  Look for the scene where Wolverine has to prove he is the real one to the X-Men.  It is the funniest moment in the film.

4.    Blade -  Blade was a comic not many people had heard of, but the preview said it was about a vampire hunter who was part vampire without the vampire weaknesses.  This movie was hardcore and stayed true to the majority of the comic.  A sequel to this should be out in a couple of years.  It is also a great DVD with tons of extra stuff about the history of the character, vampires, making of, and commentary.  It also has one of the best opening sequences in the last 10 years.

5.    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - When this movie came out, I had very little knowledge of these renaissance turtles.  I then read the comic and watched the cartoon to learn about the characters.  The cartoon was okay but childish, but the comic was somewhat hardcore.  The first Turtle movie was like the comic book and succeeded by being a great action movie and true to its source material. It was wacky but very fun and different.  The sequels turned more cartoony, but the first one worked as a comic book movie very well.  It seems that Mutants work well on the big screen.

Honorable Mention - The Phantom - This movie received no respect from the public since no one had ever heard of the character.  I knew of the Phantom comic strips, but it was way before my time and I  had read books about old comic strips so I knew a bit about it.  This movie is pretty good as an action adventure, and I recommend it as a buried treasure.  It's a cheap rental, but should entertain you for a couple of hours.  

TOP 5 WORST COMIC BOOK MOVIES EVER MADE

1.    Superman IV: The Quest for Peace -  There is no worse superhero movie than this.  Truly awful.  The special effects were worse than the George Reeves 1950's series, the story has logic problems like how Mariel Hemingway was able to survive in outerspace without a space suit.  Just awful.  It is the "Eraserhead" of superhero movies.

2.    Batman and Robin - This is considered the worst superhero movie ever made, but since Jesse "The Mind" Ventura has a 2 second cameo, I will only make it the second. And it is still not as bad as Superman 4.  This movie may have destroyed the Batman movie franchise and nearly kept George Clooney on E.R.  The worst moment to me is when Batman and Robin are facing Mr. Freeze for the first time not knowing anything about his powers, but knew that having ice skates in their boots would come in handy one day when they clicked their heels together to have them shoot out.  Not a good movie.

3.    Captain America - This movie was never really released in the theaters but was supposed to.  Captain America fought the Red Skull, and test screenings told the makers that the Skull character was so strong they filmed extra scenes.  Non of it helped.  You see, Captain America was in the beginning during World War 2 and then sent to the present day.  At that point, he does not get back into the suit until the last 15 minutes.  No action, no story, and the Red Skull only had the red look in the beginning and kept a natural skin tone for the rest of the film.  Terrible movie.

4.    Fantastic Four - This movie was made for less than 10 million dollars and looks like it was made for less money than what those guys spent on The Blair Witch Project.  I bought it for $10 at a sci fi convention so I could say I had seen this movie.  Boy am I stupid.  Don't make my mistake.  The comic is one of the best ever created with Mr. Fantastic, Invisble Girl (Woman now), Human Torch, and The Thing.  The first family of superhero teams.  Hollywood is trying to make a big budget version to replace this mess and hopefully they will get it right.

5.    The Shadow -  Boy was this a disappointment.  This movie was based on the pulp comic book and radio show of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.  I have never read a Shadow comic, but I was a huge fan of the radio show.  I have several of the old shows on audio tape and they are great.  The evil that lurks in the hearts of men can be found in the people who put together this boring picture.  Alec Baldwin seemed a bit lost in the role as a supernatural crime fighter who could cloud mens' minds.  Practically no action, and very little actual Shadow mind clouding.  Boring is the main fault of this movie and no respect for the source material.  It is a great character and great origin, made pointles by this mess. 

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

1.    Scary Movie is a huge success for the Wayans family.

2.    NBC has picked up the television rights to air an altered version of SM so it can air on regular tv.

3.    They may as well call it Scary Movie 2 because and altered version of the current film will have to be a completely different picture.

4.    Perfect Storm is on its way to about $150 million and will help Clooney get that $15 million a movie paycheck he has been begging for.

5.    Patriot just opened in the U.K, and as expected is not doing that well.

6.    Disney's the Kid is holding up okay after a lackluster opening.

7.    Chicken Run is still not ready to "go on holiday" away from the top ten.

8.    I find  it funny that Jim Carrey's movie will not make $100 million, but Martin Lawrence's less ambitious film is on its way to out gross Truman Show and Man on the Moon combined.

9.    Nick Cage was originally supposed to play Superman, but since that fell through, he was stuck in this Gone in 60 Seconds masterpiece.

10.    Looks like Shaft is about to "cop out" of the top ten next week.

Next week should be another weak time for Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer.  Their movie "What Lies Beneath" comes out next week, but I am not hearing much excited buzz about the film especially after the uninteresting preview that pretty much seems to reveal much of the films twists and turns. The attack of the American Pie cast continues as Jason Biggs and that queen of movies with "American" in the title Mena Suvari show up in "Loser."  I may pass on going to the movies until Eddie Murphy's "The Klumps" shows up.  If word of mouth is as good as it appears, X-Men should still be at number one and there is a good chance that Scary Movie will still be at number 2 as it crosses the $100 million mark.  We shall see.  Bye for now.