Reeves' ``Watcher'' still sees U.S. box office gold
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Keanu Reeves thriller ''The Watcher'' notched a second consecutive weekend at the top ofthe North American box office, although its $5.7 million haul was the lowest for any No. 1 movie this year.
As overall ticket sales fell for the eighth consecutive weekend compared to the year-ago period, the only star performer was
writer/director Cameron Crowe's new film ``Almost Famous.''
The rock 'n' roll saga opened in limited release at No. 8 with $2.3 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period. While that looks
modest, it was achieved in just 131 theaters across the United States and Canada, giving it a huge average of $17,557. By
contrast, ``The Watcher'' played in 2,745 theaters, and averaged $2,077 per site.
Just as it did with eventual Oscar-winner ``American Beauty,'' DreamWorks is rolling out Crowe's movie slowly, hoping the
ecstatic reviews and word of mouth will fuel buzz among moviegoers and critics groups.
Based loosely on Crowe's own exploits as a teen-aged Rolling Stone scribe during the 1970s, the movie stars Billy Crudup,
Patrick Fugit and Oscar-winner Frances McDormand. Crowe was last in theaters with 1996's ``Jerry Maguire,'' starring Tom
Cruise.
``Almost Famous'' opened Wednesday in New York and Los Angeles exclusively, after having its world premiere at the
Toronto Film Festival. Its five-day haul is $2.4 million.
The top 10 contained two other new movies. ``Bait'' (Warner Bros.), a heist comedy starring Jamie Foxx, opened at No. 2
with $5.5 million and a week average of $2,338 from 2,352 sites. ``Duets'' (Touchstone), a karaoke road movie starring
Gwyneth Paltrow and directed by her father, Bruce Paltrow, shared the No. 9 spot with ``Scary Movie,'' both with $2.0
million. The average for ``Duets'' was $3,442 from just 581 theaters.
According to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., the top 12 films grossed an estimated $38.1 million, down 16 percent from
last weekend and down 44 percent from the year-ago period when Martin Lawrence's ``Blue Streak'' opened at No. 1 with
$19 million. This time of the year is traditionally slow at the box office, with conditions exacerbated by competition from the
Olympics.
After 10 days in release, ``The Watcher'' has grossed $17.3 million. Starring Reeves as serial killer, it is released by Universal
Pictures, a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd.. Until this weekend, the January release ``Eye of the Beholder'' had the record for the
lowest grossing No. 1 movie of the year, with $6.0 million.
Rounding out the top five were: Universal's cheerleader comedy ``Bring It On,'' which held steady at No. 3 with $5.1 million
(24-day total $50.9 million); the USA Films black comedy ``Nurse Betty'' down two to No. 4 with $4.7 million (10-day total
$13.6 million); and the DreamWorks thriller ``What Lies Beneath'' with $2.6 million, up one to No. 5 with $2.5 million (59-day
total $145.7 million).
USA Films is a unit of USA Networks Inc.. DreamWorks is privately held. Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc..
Touchstone Films is a unit of Walt Disney Co..
movie, "Held Up" did not, and "Any Given Sunday" was a fair
success, but he did was very well received for his acting in the film. He
has been around for about 8 years since his "In Living Color" days and
still has his TV show. This movie, Bait seems to be a take off of Will
Smith's "Enemy of the State" chase movie. It is actually
more like a Martin Lawrence star vehicle similar to last year's "Blue
Streak." He plays a character being tracked by the police to help
expose a crook. Foxx is hard luck criminal getting a chance to redeem
himself if he helps out the cops. Hilarity ensues I guess. This
movie opened in second place with a pretty weak opening, but the placement may
look like it more successful than it is. It also shows that Foxx is
getting a following. Any Given Sunday has just been released on video and
fans of that probably went out and saw Bait this weekend to get their Foxx fixx.
This movie may stick around for a while because of the lack of competition and
make a small profit for the production company. 
are
now the constant playlists of the classic rock radio stations. These bands
not only had good rock beats but even snuck in some messages to keep you
thinking. It also helped that we had a military conflict causing a bunch
of artists to get all emotional and write songs about it to protest. Once
the 1980s hit and MTV created the "hair bands" like Ratt, Cinderella,
Motley Crue, and Whitesnake, the bands of the seventies were buried in oldies
stations and eulogized because half of them die in car or airplane
crashes. Almost Famous is a movie about the time when classic rock was
still just Bill Haley and the Comets and Elvis was still shooting his television
and coming up with ways to beat up karate instructors. Cameron Crowe, the
director and writer of "Jerry Maguire" and the writer of "Fast
Times at Ridgemont High" used to be a writer for "Rolling Stone"
magazine when he was still just a teenager. He hung out with rock bands
and got to know them pretty well. This movie is about that life on the
road and his coming of age. This movie is also supposed to make Kurt
Russell's girlfriend's daughter, Kate, a star. Probably won't. There
is this guy Billy Crudup who is also trying to become a household name. We
shall see, but since so many magazines are saying that they are the next big
thing means that they will still remain unknown for years to come. This
movie had the best per screen average this week and the reviews and word of
mouth is pretty strong meaning that when it goes wide it has a chance at
reaching the number one spot. Personally, the movie does not look all that
great to me, but I am willing to give it a chance. It comes around my area
this weekend and after I see "Urban Legends the Final Cut" I'll see
what all the fuss is about. 
people going out there singing along with bad pop songs. However, I don't
see where there is a need for an entire movie about the subject. It plays
well as an episode of "Drew Carey" but nothing to pay money for.
Bruce Paltrow basically is a television director of such things like "St.
Elsewhere" and "Homicide" and is trying to show that he can make
a full length feature film. However, it seems to me getting people to foot
the bill for a karaoke flick would be tough. Fortunately for Mr. P., his
daughter is an Oscar winning actress and the film she won it for made more than
a $100 million. She has clout, and once she agreed to throw her dad a
bone, the movie was greenlighted. Someone also convinced the finance guys
that they could convince the public that Princess Gwen could carry a tune.
Be careful when you drink alcohol during a pitch meeting. Huey Lewis used
to be part of one of the hottest musical acts of the day, but then they stopped
making Back to the Future movies. Now he gets Jon Bon Jovi's
rejects. Some critic said that Andre Braugher of "Homicide" is
the best actor on 
television.
Uhh, yeah, whatever. He is also the only star in the movie who has their
voice dubbed in the singing scenes. Another example of keeping a brother
down. Paul Giamatti from "Howard Stern's Private Parts" is a
goofy looking guy who gets the character actor tag, but is still considered a
great actor. I am a fan and if I had to have reason to see this movie, it
would be to see him. However, I heard a clip of his singing which for some
reason you don't hear in the preview, and I decided it was not worth the effort
to check out. In fact the only part of the movie you can actually hear of
the karaoke singing is Gwen and Huey chanting about how it is cold
outside. Lewis is not good hear because he is singing and trying to act at
the same time. Not something he should try again. His track record
is one line in Back to the Future and playing Reba Mcentire's husband in a music
video. Gwen's voice is a little too high and a bit off key when she tries
to belt out Kim Carne's "Betty Davis Eyes." This movie was
estimated to be in 9th place this week, but it eventually came down to
10th. I don't expect "Duets" to make a double appearance in the
box office report. 
good and insightful in about a very misunderstood entertainment business.
The other movie was Ready to Rumble which is a comedy about 2 guys played by
David "Dewey" Arquette and Scott Caan trying to get their favorite pro
grappler to come back to the ring after being screwed out of his title. As
I have said before on this web site,I am a huge pro wrestling fan. I love
the stuff and watch it every week. Beyond the Mat focused a lot on WWF and ECW
wrestlers, but Ready to Rumble is exclusively about WCW and their Monday Nitro
wrestlers. It was funny to watch this movie since many of the performers
in it are no longer actively wrestling for WCW because of firings, quitting,
injuries, and misuse. I even went to see a WCW Nitro show live and saw
many of the wrestlers and Nitro Girls in person that are in the movie. In
fact the last match takes place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where I attended
the live show. That was sort of cool. The movie makes a good effort
at trying to be a really silly movie about wrestling and its fans as well as
showing how some of the behind the scenes things are put together like setting
up matches and calling move spots during the matches. Oliver Platt plays
the screwed over wrestler trying to "find his smile" and get revenge
on the promoter played by Joe Pantoliano who fired him. Platt is very good
in the movie even though he really does not look like a guy who could be
successful in the ring physically or verbally. His part is forced, but as
usual, Platt gives a great performance even 
in
a somewhat sub par film. The comedy is mostly poopy jokes like sewer
trucks crashing. The wrestling in the movie is more staged in the movie
than on a regular show because it is a movie. I remember when they were
filming this and many of the wrestlers did storylines where they were injured so
they would have an excuse to be off television while they were filming the
movie. I remember Diamond Dallas Page, the wrestler who is the main
opponent of Platt getting beat up with a bat or something and being off Nitro
for 4 weeks. Rey Mysterio Jr who can be seen briefly was only seen briefly
because he injured his knee and could not wrestle for months because of
it. When this movie was in development and when it was released, it was
not well received by the wrestling fans. They thought it was too silly and
made wrestling look stupid. I thought this would be the case as well so I
avoided it at the theater when it came out. After seeing it, I have
to not take wrestling that seriously. These guys are athletes and what
they do is very difficult, but it is still a joke that the average fans get
(marks) that the long term internet website writing ones seemed to have forgot
(smarts). This movie is funny and I laughed several times. The
wrestling sequences were done pretty well and looked better than most Nitros I
have seen. The final fight takes place in a triple level steel cage that
was so impressive they actually used it on a WCW pay per view and a recent
Nitro. In fact, David
Arquette became directly involved in the WCW storylines and wrestled on the tv
shows and pay per views. Believe it or not, he won the WCW Heavyweight
title and even beat the shoot fighter Tank Abbott in a match and kept the belt
for about 3 weeks. Yeah, wrestling is "fake" and predetermined,
but having this "actor" win the belt in the context of the show really
upset wrestling fans and has lead WCW to very poor ratings that they are still
struggling to make better. When the movie was released, Nitro was having a
lot of creative problems, and the movie did not help make the WCW shows look
good. My immediate reaction to Ready to Rumble was to say it was no good
and that it was stupid. But I thought about it and could see the actors
had fun making it, worked hard, and it did make me laugh more than 5
times. If you are a casual wrestling fan or a fan of slightly raunchy
comedies without any real hardcore stuff then you will like this movie.
Uptight people who are offended by crazy slapstick, stupid puns, and pro
wrestling should avoid the movie. Also, people who take WCW, WWF, ECW and
all the rest too seriously should probably watch their copies of Beyond the Mat
again and then see Ready to Rumble. Final Review: 2 1/2 stars out of 5; 5
1/2 out of 10; C+; thumbs up. Not for everyone, but there are some very
funny parts and the wrestling is half way decent.