By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Sylvester Stallone sped to box office glory Sunday as ``Driven,'' the race car thriller hewrote and co-starred in, opened in the top position, according to studio estimates.
Amid a critical drubbing, Stallone's own fading star power and a weak market overall, the film took in a modest $13.1
million for the Friday-to-Sunday period.
Last weekend's champion, the female-targeted romantic comedy ``Bridget Jones's Diary,'' slipped to No. 2 with $7.5 million.
At the other end of the scale, the long-delayed Warren Beatty marital infidelity comedy ``Town & Country,'' which reportedly
cost upward of $90 million to make, opened at No. 7 with just $3.1 million -- lower than the industry's diminished
expectations.
The film, which also stars Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, took three years to make and had its release date changed about
13 times as it underwent reshoots and rewrites that doubled its initial budget. With some of the worst buzz in Hollywood
history, the film is being compared to Beatty's infamous 1987 flop ``Ishtar.''
New Line Cinema, the AOL Time Warner Inc.-owned studio that released ``Town,'' gave it a low profile. It did not screen
the film for critics until Wednesday and decided not to hold a glitzy premiere. The film's stars did not promote it either. Peter
Chelsom directed ``Town.''
Since the film skews older, it counts on good reviews to get its target audience into theaters. As with ``Driven,'' the critics
were scathing. The Wall Street Journal said ``the movie's ineptitude is almost incomparable.''
Ticket Sales Tumble
Combined ticket sales for the top 12 films fell to the lowest point in almost seven months -- $55.2 million -- off about 20
percent from the hear-ago weekend. The previous low for the top 12 was the weekend beginning Sept. 29, 2000, when sales
were $52.7 million, according to box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
Industry observers blamed the box office woes on a paucity of quality new releases as studios hold off from releasing their
best films until the peak summer season, which begins next weekend with ``The Mummy Returns.''
``Driven'' marks a reunion between Stallone and Renny Harlin, the director of the 54-year-old actor's last big hit, the 1993
mountaineering thriller ``Cliffhanger.''
In a nod to market reality, ``Driven'' revolves around two gung-ho race drivers (Kip Pardue and German actor Til
Schweiger) who vie for the Championship Auto Racing Team crown. Stallone, who originally wrote the script with himself
as the hero, takes a back seat, along with co-star Burt Reynolds.
Stallone was ``thrilled'' with the film's debut, said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures, also a
unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. The audience for the film was 60 percent male, and exit polling was strong, he added.
``BRIDGET JONES'' REACHES $37 MILLION
``Bridget Jones's Diary,'' which stars Renee Zellweger as the title character, an obsessive diarist in search of a man, has now
earned $36.2 million after three weekends. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth co-star. The British comedy was released in North
America by Miramax Films, a unit of Walt Disney Co.
Two films tied at No. 3, each with about $5.7 million. The children's spy caper ``Spy Kids,'' released by Miramax's
Dimension Films arm, was marginally ahead of the Morgan Freeman thriller ``Along Came A Spider,'' released by
Paramount Pictures. Their respective totals are $93.6 million after five weekends and $54.8 million after four weekends.
Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc., also had the No. 5 film film, Australian Paul Hogan's ``Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles,''
which grossed $4.7 million, taking its 10-day total to $13.9 million.
The top 10 contained one other new release, ``The Forsaken,'' which opened at No. 8 with $3.0 million. The low-budget
thriller was released by Screen Gems, a unit of Sony Corp.
The comedy ``One Night at McCool's,'' starring Liv Tyler, opened at No. 12 with $2.0 million. It was released by USA
Films, a unit of USA Networks Inc.
Reuters/Variety REUTERS
of releasing films that people don't really want to see. Sylvester
Stallone is back on top this week with Driven, but it does not look like it will
be the big comeback for this aging action star. This time he plays a race
car driver trying to teach the young up and comers how to really race
cars. Fast car action pictures do not necessarily attract that large an
audience, and this movie opened as well as it did mostly by default. It
sounded better than any other new movie out this week. However, Stallone
is not the main focus of the film. So, any hopes of this being a comeback
for him really won't apply here. Sly's last hit was Cliffhanger directed
by Renny Harlin who is the director of Driven, but lightning won't be striking
twice here. I think it is time for Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Willis to
do a movie together, take a pay cut and see what happens. Something like
Rock the Terminator Hard with a Vengeance might help. Warren Beatty, Diane
Keaton, Gary Shandling, and Goldie Hawn are very well known actors who keep
coming out with movies that no one goes to see. I am a fan of most of
their work, but it may be over for them. Town and Country was made over 2
years ago and is just now being released. It's story of infidelity is told
better on Days of Our Lives or Young and the Restless every day. Sometimes
a movie can have a history of problems and it can attract an audience just out
of curiosity. No one cares because the public has been disappointed by
these actors for way too long to give them a chance on a film that not even the
critics who kiss their ass every so often turned their backs on. Look for
the 4 main actors here to show up making made 
for
cable movies soon to minimize the financial risks. Forsaken is the other
new movie out this week and it is another take on the vampire legend. The
catch this time is that the bloodsuckers are not so much vampires but people
with a blood disease that makes them crave that juice that flows through our
veins. They don't even have fangs. Years ago, a movie like this
would guarantee an opening weekend of $10 million but after so many horror
movies have been awful recently, the public decided to pass on this one.
We are now in the middle of a downturn on the genre pictures. Horror,
raunch comedy, action star geared adventure movies, and science fiction have all
fallen out of grace. The public is looking for something new and Hollywood
has not figured out what new things to offer us. Sequels to huge successes
that warrant sequels open well and do pretty well like Hannibal and most likely
The Mummy Returns. I don't see anything in the near future based on an
original idea that will spark major box office interest. Spy Kids may have
been our last hope.