September 12, 1999

''Stigmata'' leaves mark atop box office

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Ghosts and evil spirits sent chills through the North American weekend box office as

supernatural thrillers grabbed the top three places, led by the new release ``Stigmata.''

The stylish horror picture, starring Patricia Arquette as a Pittsburgh hairdresser stricken with the crucifixion wounds of Christ

earned about $19.3 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period.

It ended the five-week reign of ``The Sixth Sense'' (Hollywood Pictures), which slipped to No. 2 with $17.0 million, propelling

its total to $198.2 million. ``Stir of Echoes'' (Artisan Entertainment), which stars Kevin Bacon and has a similar

boy-sees-dead-people storyline to ``Sixth Sense,'' opened a distant third place with $6.2 million.

``Stigmata'' marks the first No. 1 picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer since ``The Birdcage'' in March 1996. Backed by a loud

industrial rock soundtrack, ``Stigmata'' throws in a Catholic Church conspiracy and a latent attraction between Arquette's

character and the priest character of Gabriel Byrne. Despite reviews that accused it of being silly, ``Stigmata'' capitalized on the

current buzz surrounding scary pictures.

``The whole genre is really popular now,'' said Larry Gleason, MGM's president of worldwide distribution.

But while many horror films such as ``Scream'' and ``I Know What You Did Last Summer'' series targeted teen-agers,

''Stigmata'' attracted a slightly older audience by picking up where ``The Omen'' and ``The Exorcist'' left off, Gleason said.

According to Exhibitor Relations, which collects the studios' data, the top 12 films grossed a combined $64.2 million, down 7.8

percent from a week ago, but up 60.4 percent from the year-ago period when the poker drama ``Rounders'' was the top

attraction with $8.5 million.

Elsewhere this weekend, the romantic comedy ``Runaway Bride'' (Paramount) fell two places to No. 4 with $3.9 million, taking

its 45-day total to $140.5 million. The showbiz satire ''Bowfinger'' (Universal) fell one place to No. 5 with $3.7 million, bringing

its haul to $60.5 million after 31 days.

``The 13th Warrior'' (Touchstone) and ``The Thomas Crown Affair'' (MGM) tied at No. 6 with $2.9 million each. They were

at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, last weekend. ``Warrior'' has pulled in $26.6 million after 17 days, and ``Crown'' $60.8

million after 38 days.

``Mickey Blue Eyes'' fell one place to No. 8 with with $2.3 million (24-day total $30.3 million) and ``Chill Factor'' three places

to No. 9 with $1.9 million (12-day total $9.6 million). Both are released by Warner Bros.

``The Blair Witch Project'' (Artisan) fell two places to No. 10 with $1.6 million. After 61 days, the low-budget horror flick has

earned $136.2 million, and should end up with about $141 million, said a studio spokesman.

A third new wide release movie, ``Love Stinks'' opened out of the top 10 with $950,000. The romantic comedy, starring

French Stewart of TV's ``3rd Rock from the Sun,'' was distributed by privately held Independent Artists.

Reuters/Variety

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 September 10-12

weekend, according to studio estimates collected Sunday by Reuters. Final data will be released Monday.

1 (+) Stigmata ......................... $19.3 million

2 (1) The Sixth Sense .................. $17.0 million

3 (+) Stir of Echoes ................... $6.2 million

4 (2) Runaway Bride .................... $3.9 million

5 (4) Bowfinger ........................ $3.7 million

6-(3) The 13th Warrior ................. $2.9 million

6-(5) The Thomas Crown Affair .......... $2.9 million

8 (7) Mickey Blue Eyes ................. $2.3 million

9 (6) Chill Factor ..................... $1.9 million

10 (8) The Blair Witch Project .......... $1.6 million

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

JOHN L.: It’s a new era in box office entertainment. The post Sixth Sense Era. We have an upset in this week’s top spot at the movies, one that I thought would have placed better, and one that had no chance in heck to succeed. Not a very eventful week, but since I am forced to cover this stuff weekly, I may as well get to it. Hopefully no one will invade the report this week.

Stigmata shocks the world and ends the 5 week reign of The Sixth Sense. This shocked me. It stars 2 of the biggest box office losers in the business, David Arquette’s little sister and Ellen Barkin’s ex meal ticket, Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne respectfully. Actually, I think David may be younger than Patricia. And neither Ellen or Gabriel got rich off of their acting skills. Adult horror seems to be the in thing nowadays and Stigmata proves it. This may be Patricia Arquette’s biggest opening since Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. It is definitely Byrne’s biggest hit. Stigmata has already outgrossed that Fritz the Cat ripoff, Cool World. If word of mouth keeps up, the movie has a good chance of making a $100 million. Looks like no one will be slitting their wrists at MGM.

Stir of Echoes was my pick as being the movie that had a chance of unseating T6S. Boy, was I wrong on that one. It didn’t even open well, and I thought it’s preview was better than Stigmata’s. Kevin Bacon is another actor who does not have a lot of hit movies, but has been around for 20 years and just hitting the 40 range. From Animal House, to Friday the 13^th Pt. 1, Footloose, River Wild, She’s Having a Baby, A Few Good Men, Wild things, and the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, he is one of the most recognizable stars out there. But he still can’t put an ass in a seat. The big reason for its poor performance is its similarity to T6S. It too has a little boy who can see dead people or something. However, Haley Joel Osment can enunciate when he talks, I still have no idea what that kid says in the preview. Also, another box office bad seed is in the movie. Ileana Douglas. She pops up every once in a while as either the best friend or the wise sister. Check her out in that Nicole Kidman evil teacher who has sex with her student and has him kill her husband movie. She sucks in that too. She is also in that new show "Action" with Jay Mohr that is the talk of the entertainment industry because they say "fuck," "shit," and "cunt" but bleep it out. Go to cable guys, it saves money on paying the censors. Douglas also has the bug eyes. She’s about 3 steps away from being somewhat attractive. SOE could do better next week if this week was a matter of people making choices and only affording to see one new movie since everyone went out an bout Sega Dreamcasts, and extra controller, a VMU, an RF switch, 3 games, a jolt pack, a strategy guide, and had to take back Sonic games because they wouldn’t work. Artisan makes this movie and Blair Witch. SOE doesn’t have to make a dime. Just take $50 million off the top of TBWP’s box office to help off set the costs and they are still making mad dough.

Nowayjosethat139milliondollarsisallmineandstirofechoesgetsnoneofiteffkevinbaconandhisuglydickthatsalligotstosayaboutthatbacktoyourreport

Thank you for being brief this week, dear.

Love Stinks is another movie that lives up to its title. French Stewart from 3^rd Rock From the Sun, Bill Belamy from MTV, Tyra Banks from.. from… what does she do that’s significant, and I believe Sonya from Mortal Kombat are in this movie. French Stewart is not ready for being a romantic lead. He can barley look "believable" next to Jan Hooks for God sakes. Bill Belamy could never get a Tyra Banks in real life. Call me when Banks poses in Players magazine they I’ll care. $900,000 is pretty bad for a wide release. I think that if everyone that made the movie went to go see it and paid, it might make more than that. Ask 100 people on the street if they have even heard of the movie, 150 will tell you to go to Hell. Back to the Big Head for French, hopefully Sandler will make Billy Madison 2 for Sonya, wonder if MTV still has Bill’s dressing room, and I hear that there are a lot of award shows that need girls to hand the envelopes to the likes of Donny Wahlberg and Rachel Leigh Cook. Better luck next time. But I doubt it will help.

The rest of the top 10 is stale and boring. We need newer movies. I am sick of Sense, Blair, Crown, Bow, 13^th, Eyes, Bride, Chill, and any other movie that I don’t want to see. The past 3 months have been pretty good overall, but for the next 8 weeks, we will be seeing a lot of boring, adult, hope the academy notices me, arthouse, independent, foreign, can’t make more than $20 million the first weekend, no nudity, less violence, more cursing, Brad Pitt stinking up the joint, black and white for artistic reasons, Nick Cage seeing dead people for Vishnu’s sake, Saturday Night Live Sketch movies, illegality being praised, murder, sex, love, hate, and me staying home trying to clear Final Fantasy 8 on an out dated videogame system.

Crap. See you next week. One day I may even have a web site to chronicle this mess. Ah, damnit, why is there blood on my keyboard? Holy jehosaphat, my hands are bleeding!!! It’s like I poked them with some sharp object. Oh whatever could have caused it? I have to go clean up. Maybe I can find out, ow, ow, my ankles. I must have bumped them on the side of my computer desk. What in the name of… I have a splitting headache now, like sharp prickly needles stabbing me in on the top of my skull. I need to get more sleep. All of these things happening at once is too strange. I will have to look into this offline. Oh look, a frog just hopped on my scanner. Bye for now.