'Whole Nine Yards' Still Champ at Weak Box Office
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - ``The Whole Nine Yards'' ruled a weak North American box office for a third weekend, whilenew films starring Madonna and Garry Shandling sputtered out of the gate.
According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, the Bruce Willis mob comedy retained the top spot by selling $7.3 million worth of tickets in the United States and Canada for the Friday-to-Sunday period. Its 17-day total stood at $38.5 million.
Three movies vied for the No. 2 spot, with the Madonna-Rupert Everett gay romance ``The Next Best Thing'' claiming $6.0 million, ahead of family-targeted drama ``My Dog Skip'' and black comedy ``Drowning Mona,'' each with $5.9 million.
Final data, which could change the rankings, will be issued on Monday.
According to Exhibitor Relations Co., which collects the studios' data, the top 12 films this weekend grossed a combined $59.7 million, down 26 percent from last weekend, and down 15 percent from the year-ago period when another mob comedy, ''Analyze This,'' opened at No. 1 with $18.4 million.
This weekend marks the fourth time in 2000 that the No. 1 movie has earned less than $10 million. Box office observers expect business to improve next weekend when ``Mission to Mars'' opens. Also opening is director Roman Polanski's ``The Ninth Gate.''
This weekend's new releases also included the urban comedy ''3 Strikes,'' which opened at No. 12 with $3.6 million from 678 screens. However, its solid per-screen average of $5,310 was the best of all the rookies. The film is distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (NYSE:MGM - news) under a percentage deal with its producers.
On the other hand, Shandling's ``What Planet Are You From?'' (Columbia), which the acerbic comedian also co-wrote and co-produced for director Mike Nichols (''The Graduate''), debuted at No. 14, with $3.0 million from 2,248 screens, an average of $1,335 per screen.
A spokesman for Columbia, a unit of Sony Corp. (6758.T), said the poor reviews did not help. In a new twist on the fish-out-of-water story, Shandling plays an alien who comes to Earth to impregnate a woman (Annette Bening).
``The Next Best Thing'' (Paramount) revolves around a custody battle between a child accidentally conceived during a drunken tryst by a straight woman (Madonna) and her gay pal (Everett). John Schlesinger, best known for ``Midnight Cowboy,'' directed. Its per screen average was a modest $2,990.
The acclaimed coming-of-age drama ``My Dog Skip'' (Warner Bros.) entered the top 10 with a $2,548 average after six weeks in limited release. Frankie Muniz (of Fox television's ``Malcolm in the Middle'') stars in the World War II-era pooch picture.
``To use a bad pun, we were kind of the underdog coming into this weekend,'' ``Skip'' director Jay Russell told Reuters.
He said the film was one of the few in the marketplace that the whole family could attend, cry and laugh at the same scenes, and talk about later. After 54 days in release, the film's total is $6.7 million. It cost just $7.0 million to make, Russell said.
The other new release in the top 10, the low-budget ''Drowning Mona,'' (Destination Films) is about the investigation into the death of the most hated woman in a backward town. Danny DeVito, Bette Midler and Neve Campbell star.
Two films vied for the No. 5 spot, each with $5 million -- the sci-fi drama ``Pitch Black'' (USA Films) and the surprise hit children's movie ``Snow Day'' (Paramount). After 17 days, ''Pitch Black'' has grossed $29.7 million. ``Snow Day'' has grossed $49.2 million after 24 days.
The leading contenders for the best picture Oscar, ''American Beauty'' and ``The Cider House Rules,'' claimed the last two spots in the top 10 for the third consecutive weekend.
DreamWorks' ``Beauty'' earned $4.1 million, about $500,000 ahead of Miramax's ``Cider.'' Their respective totals are $93.1 million and $37.2 million.
Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX - news) Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA - news) USA Films is a unit of USA Networks Inc. (NasdaqNM:USAI - news) Miramax Films is a unit of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS - news) DreamWorks and Destination Films are privately held.
is Julia Robert's current boyfriend from Law and Order. This is another
attempt to make the world see gay people as everyone else. Yeah, gay guys
can have sex with women just like straight ones. Everett can't cut a break
because he is always stuck acting with hot women all of the time going against
his natural instincts. He would probably have preferred to do his love
scenes with Benjamin Bratt instead. Madonna still can't get a movie that
the public goes to see in mass. This is her first big movie since her Eva Peron
period and no one seemed to be that excited about it. This movie has the
problem of getting guys to go see it. It has that romantic
comedy/pseudo-drama that attracts the ladies, but guys won't see it unless they
are forced to on a date. The preview also shows you the whole story except
for the final outcome of the custody battle between Everett and Madonna over the
boy they have together. The mystery of the ending was not enough to entice
a $15 to $20 million opening weekend gross. These type of movies are still
a tough sell. The Hollywood producers want to make movies about the gay
lifestyle that will be accepted, but to do that they have to make the lead gay
do heterosexual things. In My Best Friend's Wedding Everett had to pretend
to date Julia Roberts and in this one he gets to boink Miss Ciccone. Heck,
one of his movies is the Ideal Husband for gosh sakes and he gets to fool around
with the likes of Minnie Driver and Cate Blanchett. They can't show him
really doing guys because the makers of movies know that that won't attract a
mass audience. Right now only lipstick lesbians are acceptable to the cineplex
crowd. But, if they want to get this alternative lifestyle over with
the people, then they will have to go all out with it and make it real.
Unfortunately for the makers of these movies, the only real portrayal of this
type of stuff is found in the back of the video store. I personally am not
a fan of this type of film, but to each their own. I did watch Dynasty for
9 years.
up
in Drowning Mona. Bette Midler returns to the movies this week after her
last movie, Isn't She Great, failed to place in the top 10. This has a
pretty well know cast in it with Midler, Campbell, Danny Devito, and Jamie Lee
Curtis. But as the top 10 list has shown every week, star power pretty
much doesn't mean dick. Midler's character is apparently murdered and the
whole town of Yugo owning misfits is a suspect. Another case of a mystery
not getting the interest of the public. Also, Midler and Campbell need to
realize that they sort of suck. Midler's name nowadays causes people to
read a book while if Campbell is not brooding about her whore mother in a
slasher picture, no one cares what she does. See the box office of Studio
54 or Three To Tango. Danny Devito is a good actor, but he too needs to be
in a movie people care about. He is on a losing streak after Man on the
Moon failed big time to get popular. Curtis has been in 2 good movies in
the last 10 years. True Lies and My Girl. If you think those movies sucked, at
least they made a profit. Even her Halloween reunion failed to sustain
interest past the first week. She is a good actress and I am a fan of
hers, but her movie choices have been very weak. I don't understand how
any of these people still get the milions of dollars salaries they do.
It's all about the marketing and then the story. If you market a sorry
movie well, you might get some good first weekend interest. To keep it all
depends on the script. This is a dark comedy because it makes light
of a woman's death. Murder comedies are not very popular based on current
events where murder really is not funny. Drowning Mona will sink to the
bottom of the box office in due time.
show, Malcolm in the Middle. That's a good show, but it won't make
me excited about seeing this movie. This movie did okay this week in terms
of its limited promotion and budget, but I believe very few people know it
exists. Also, it takes place in the 1940s, and people really don't like
seeing those movies nowadays unless Speilberg is directing. Just ask the
guys who made Thin Red Line. This is a family movie, but the families are
still seeing the Snow Day movie. The plot of the kid finding out that his
war hero may not be the hero he thinks he is may not attract the 7 to 10 set who
can relate to goofing off when the schools are closed because of the
weather. This movie has finally gone wide after being out for about 8
weeks. Right now it needs a McDonalds Happy Meal to get over.
Stick with your day job Frankie. People are not ready to pay to see you
when they can view you for free.
Three
Strikes and What Planet are You From also came out this week but failed to place
in the top ten. Three Strikes can still be happy since their movie had the
largest per screen average in the top 20 and it was only on 678 screens.
It did not cost a whole lot so the studio won't be taking that long a
bath. The police may not be able to catch his boy, but I don't think 3
Strikes will catch up to the top 10. Another movie showing young
black men trying to stay off out of jail and running from the cops. No one
wins with these continued scenarios in movies when real life cops and robbers
and innocent bystander incidents are a little too common. What Planet Are
You
From tries to be a goof on male/female relations by being a big screen version
of the Man Show on Comedy Central. Shandling is so laid back in the
preview, he looks to be in constant pain. Annette Beatty's box office
poison shows up again by causing another movie to crash and burn. American
Beauty being the surprise exception. The joke and plot were established,
but they just did not come off well and the viewer could see all the jokes that
the movie was going to show. It looked boring and stupid. A humming
penis is just not funny to the mass audience. Heck, I don't think the art crowd
will dig it either. Back to the cable sitcoms Gary.