Thursday, September 27, 2001

By Carl DiOrio

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - All that's ``Glitter'' was not gold at the weekend.

And is it any surprise? Pop singer Mariah Carey's feature headlining debut bowed to poor reviews at a weak box office undermined by the drumbeat of impending war. The fortunes of the Twentieth Century Fox film were further undermined by Carey's recent hospitalizations for a mental breakdown.

So, in the second weekend since the U.S. was hit by attacks on Sept. 11, Paramount's gritty sandlot drama ``Hardball'' again won the box office pennant with an estimated $8.2 million in its sophomore session.

``Glitter,'' the weekend's only wide opener -- albeit in an unimpressive 1,202 theaters -- could do no better than 11th place with $2.5 million.

``This may partly be a function of the times we're in,'' Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said.

Fox has domestic rights on picture, and Sony the foreign.

No. 2 on the weekend was Miramax/Dimension suspenser ``The Others,'' a word-of-mouth creeper that grossed $5.2 million and its best ranking to date coming during its seventh frame.

``It just keeps on going,'' Miramax marketing VP David Kaminkow observed.

Sony's Leelee Sobieski starrer, ``The Glass House,'' finished third with an estimated $4.4 million in its second weekend.

Industrywide, the weekend's $59 million in total grosses was off 11% from the previous weekend and down 6% from a year ago, when Sony's ``Urban Legends: Final Cut'' topped openers with $8.5 million.

In a year-to-date comparison, 2001 remains 9% ahead of the same period of last year at $5.86 billion, according to data from box office tracker ACNielsen EDI. Company president Tom Borys said the absence of big new release affected overall B.O.

``It felt like people were looking for something to go see,'' he mused.

A couple of pictures previously set for wide bows this weekend were pulled after the recent dramatic news events.

Disney's ``Big Trouble'' comedy, which has a suitcase bomb as a key plot point, was delayed indefinitely by content concerns. And Warner Bros.' ``Training Day'' drama was bounced to Oct. 5 to allow more pre-release marketing -- moving into a slot abandoned by Warners' terrorist-themed ``Collateral Damage.''

Paramount Classics had set a limited opening of Edward Burns' ``Sidewalks of New York'' for this weekend, but nixed those plans because the picture shows a sparkling cityscape at a time Manhattan is beset by real-life upheaval.

``Glitter,'' which tells of a pop music diva's rise to fame, was originally set to bow over the long Labor Day frame. Its debut was postponed to allow Carey to recover from a bout of exhaustion, but plans to enlist her thereafter for pre-release publicity came asunder after she was hospitalized a second time. The sales figures from the bow of the film's soundtrack, the singer's first release since her split with Sony Music, were well below her usual numbers.

``Glitter'' represented Carey's debut as a topliner. She had a small part in the 1999 laffer ``The Bachelor.''

8X Entertainment's religious thriller ``Megiddo: The Omega Code 2'' bowed at $1.5 million from 314 engagements, for a solid $4,799 per venue. The distributor met some exhibitor resistance on the apocalyptic-themed picture.

Meanwhile, a handful of summer films got brief re-expansions this weekend but none finished in the top 10.

MGM's ``Legally Blonde'' grossed $1.3 million from 1,304 playdates. Sony/Revolution comedies ``America's Sweethearts'' and ''The Animal'' rang up $650,000 and $450,000, respectively. Weekend proceeds for both pictures are tagged for disaster-relief funds. And DreamWorks' ``Shrek'' added $659,000. That moved the blockbuster's domestic total to $264.7 million.

Lions Gate delivered the weekend's best per-theater average with the limited bow of Stephen Frears-helmed ``Liam.'' The working-class Brit drama grossed $46,000 from seven locations ($6,571 average) as it awaits an expansion into top-20 markets on Oct. 5.

Elsewhere in the specialty market, United Artists' black comedy ``Ghost World'' orbited to another 26 theaters for a total 373 and grossed $373,000, or $2,916 per venue. The total revolved to $4.7 million.

Paramount Classics' ``An American Rhapsody'' drama grossed $54,000 in expanding 16 theaters to 54, for an average $1,222 per site and a $586,000 cume.

Three reasonably major pictures open wide next weekend: Fox unspools ``Don't Say A Word,'' a suspenser starring Michael Douglas; Paramount sends out ``Zoolander,'' a laffer starring Ben Stiller as male model and CIA pawn; and Warners/Castle Rock distributes the Stephen King-novel adaptation ``Hearts in Atlantis,'' toplined by Anthony Hopkins.

``Atlantis'' was sneaked during the weekend at 500 locations, and exit interviews were studio's best ever, said Warners distribution president Dan Fellman. Some 93% rated the Scott Hicks-helmed picture ``very good'' or ``excellent,'' with ``Hearts'' skewing older and 53% femme, Fellman said.

The release schedule remains in flux beyond next weekend.

In the latest maneuver, DreamWorks said Friday it will bump the bow of Robert Redford starrer ``The Last Castle'' one week to Oct. 19. The move will allow more pre-release promo, after TV spots were stripped from networks during around-the-clock disaster coverage.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the September 21-23 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

Title Gross Gross

1. Hardball .......... $8,058,338

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $19,280,569

2. The Others .......... $5,083,004

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $80,084,619

3. The Glass House .......... $4,407,767

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $11,661,890

4. The Musketeer .......... $3,549,955

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $22,671,145

5. Rush Hour 2 .......... $3,520,978

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $215,615,683

6. Two Can Play That Game .......... $3,212,217

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $18,188,869

7. Rat Race .......... $2,939,170

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $51,524,950

8. Rock Star .......... $2,933,530

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $15,125,632

9. Jeepers Creepers .......... $2,774,511

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $33,565,670

10. American Pie 2 .......... $2,688,600

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $139,657,509

NOTE: ``Glitter'' opened at No. 11 with $2,414,596. ``Megiddo'' opened at No. 13 with $1,573,454.

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

John L.: I guess Mariah Carey should have stuck with her day job. Her new movie Glitter failed to reach the top 10 which means I don't really have to discuss it this week in the Box Office Report. It seems that no one really cared about seeing her play a version of herself when the real things going on in her life were much more interesting than how she may have started in the music business. Any publicity is not necessarily good publicity. But, it turns out that the creator of this web site is possibly the worlds biggest Mariah Carey fan. There, I have admitted it. I saw Glitter over the weekend and I am proud to present my review of the film. All of you other people may have abandoned the ex Mrs. Tommy Mottola, but I will still support her.

I have followed Mariah Carey's career since the beginning. Back in 1990, I was looking for a singer to get into and follow just on the basis of their singing quality. I was just coming off a slight obsession for Paula Abdul and I was looking for someone to replace her. Along came this young, curly haired, and very pretty girl named Mariah Carey. She was somewhat odd looking, but still attractive. I heard her sing, and said, she's going to be huge. It is not cool for guys to like Mariah Carey's brand of pop music, but her early stuff is pretty good on a vocal level. Her lyrics are mostly about getting rejected or finding true love and not letting it go. No matter how dumb her critics say her songs are, she is the most successful solo female artist ever. She has had more number one hits than any female singer including Madonna and Whitney Houston, she had a number one single in every year of the 1990s, the song "One Sweet Day" she sung with Boyz to Men was number one for 16 straight weeks with the song immediately before it "Fantasy" staying at number one for 7 weeks causing her to be on the top of the Billboard Charts for 23 weeks in a row, and she has sold around 120 million records worldwide. With stats like that, a jump to the movies would seem to be an obvious step. Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Cher, Madonna, and Whitney Houston all made leaps to the cinema with various degrees of success. Mariah has a large enough fan base that would see her in a movie and make it profitable. At least that is what everyone thought a year and a half ago when "All That Glitters" as it was called was in production. Mariah had acted briefly in "The Bachelor" but this time she was going to star in a semi-autobiographical story of a young singer who makes it big. Simple enough premise that would focus on Mariah's main talent of singing and keeping any acting stretches to a minimum, but just enough to carry the main story. Unfortunately, the stress of filming the movie and doing its soundtrack was too much for the VH1 Diva to take and she had to check herself into a hospital twice to recover from exhaustion. She was unable to promote the film and it kept getting bad word of mouth. The movie was pushed back 3 weeks and had the unfortunate timing to open during the worst time in recent American history. No one was in the mood to see a movie about how tough it is to make in the music business with a performer who despite some personal problems has had one of the best careers ever in entertainment. The true stories of heroes on the news were more compelling. That is too bad, because Glitter is not that bad a film. It is exactly what it says it is and slight musical with a rags to riches story. Carey is not a horrible actress and does fine with what she is given. She sings in spurts quite a bit in the film which she does well, and the dialogue she recites is more of a problem for the screenwriter than the actress. She should not have been given anything extraordinary to do in her first starring role. That would be unfair. Her wardrobe shows off her physical assets in attractive ways without being perverted. She wears less in her music videos. The movie is easy to criticize because it is so predictable and by the book. There are no surprises except for a somewhat shocking event near the end. Also the character Mariah plays, Billie, becomes a star too fast with somewhat weak material. It is hard to believe that her cover of "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" would be as big a hit as it is in this movie. For some reason it takes place in 1983. You know that because the screen says "1983" 10 minutes into the film and they play a lot of songs from that era in the background. The dialogue and look is more 1993 and would have been a better time period to have the film take place in. Also the inserted shots of New York are too obvious a way to hide the fact that the majority of the film was shot in Toronto, Canada. Max Beesley plays Mariah's manager and boyfriend, Dice and he is a cross between Mark Wahlberg and Ewan Macgregor. His New York accent is very obvious and overdone since he is British in real life. He is fine in the Svengali role, and works well with Carey. Their big moment actually happens when they are not together. At one point in an almost psychic like connection they write the same song, she the lyrics and he the melody. This scene has been greatly criticized because of its inate silliness, but if you watch close enough there is a scene that sets this sympatico of creation. Eric Benet (Halle Berry's husband in real life) shows up as a singer wanting to work with Mariah's Billie character. He is good, but a bit too soft spoken. There was potential for a love triangle between Benet, Carey, and Beesley, but it never happens. That could have helped make the film a bit more dramatic. Da Brat and Tia Texada play the best friends and they sort of got on my nerves. Carey and Da Brat hang out all the time off camera and Brat sings on a few of Carey's songs on the soundtrack. The friends could have been shown to be more jealous of Billie's success, but that too is never truly developed. The lack of any hardcore dramatics hurts the film when it tries to get respect. There seemed to be no confidence in Carey pulling off a more dramatic part. Seeing what she does here, I can understand the sentiment. Carey's natural speaking voice is a little too raspy and low like she needs to cough to clear her throat or something. She also seems to pick an expression and lets it freeze on her face for the entire scene without changing it. Hollywood may want to stop making movies about singers since they tend to bomb at the box office like Rock Star and Almost Famous. Fiction cannot recreate the reality that is talked about on VH1's Behind the Music shows. Moviemakers are afraid to go to the true depths of hell singers go through to become famous. These utopias shown in movies don't fool the today's audiences who are more knowledgeable about what goes on behind the scenes than ever before. I am still a fan of Mariah Carey's and I personally liked Glitter, but I cannot really recommend it for non fans or people looking for a strong movie on its own merits if you had never heard of Mariah Carey Motolla. Final Review: 2 stars out of 5; 5 out of 10; C; thumbs down. Personal review is 2 stars out of 5; 5 out of 10; C+; thumbs up.

1. September is Keanu Reeves' month since last year at this time he had a movie out that had been number one for 2 weeks straight.

2. The Others has a chance to still make a $100 million at the box office.

3. Diane Lane's career still sucks, but at least she can say she is in the number one movie and the number 3 movie, Glass House, this week.

4. The Musketeer should have stuck with traditional sword fighting instead of the crazy Wudan style.

5. I wonder if Jackie Chan will be paid $20 million on Rush Hour 3 like Chris Tucker was paid that amount to do Rush Hour 2?

6. Vivica may be a fox in Two Can Play That Game, but the girl to look for is Gabrielle Union who is slowly but surely headed for stardom if ever given the right role.

7. Rat Race seems to be lost in the maze because it has been stuck in the top ten for quite a long time now.

8. Rock Star continues to prove that even though Jennifer Aniston is on one of the most popular shows on television, she is still box office death.

9. Jeepers Creepers had so much potent ional and they just crapped it all away in the second half.

10. It looks like it is time to say goodbye to the gang from American Pie 2, but I would not be surprised that by 2003 we will be seeing most of that cast back with Seann William Scott possibly getting paid $15 million to $20 million to play Stifler one more time.

I have never invested in a public company. A few years ago, the big thing was for 23 to 26 year olds quitting their jobs and go off and create their own internet startup company. The potential for success was all there. You could set up a service on the internet, and through a bit of marketing thousands or millions of people would come to your site and give you money to use it. Things like Amazon.com, EBay.com, Pets.com, Valueamerica.com, Etoys.com, Buy.com, Boo.com, Webvan.com, Eyada.com, Napster.com, and Govworks.com thought they could become rich and powerful and change the world. They did... for a while, but then something happened. They were not making any money. Of that list, only EBay is profitable, while most of the others have all gone out of business or have been bought by someone other than who started it. Making a profit online seems to be harder than finding Osama Bin Laden in the desert. Internet companies were the darlings of the Venture Capitalists, but now they are verbotten. Too much money was spent on starting it and not enough in how to keep it coming into the company. Too many discounts, expansion without feasibility, poor business plan, no need for service, bricks and mortar competition, poor service, and just plain bad luck. There are hundreds of stories of failed internet businesses that failed to grab the brass ring, and Startup.com is just one of them. Startup.com follows Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman as they try to form a company that will make it easier for you and me to pay for our parking tickets, property taxes, and various other goverment payments that inconvenience us on a regular basis. Their company is/was called Govworks.com and as this documentary shows it started out as an amazing adventure but soon turned very bad. Kaleil and Tom are real people. There are no actors here. They are very friendly and smart, but a bit too idealistic. These 2 grew up together and are best friends, but that relationship becomes more and more strained as they realize that their plans to revolutionize public interaction with the government will not come true. This is an amazing documentary because the initial purpose of it was to show how an internet company began and became successful. When it is over, Kaleil and Tom are left with very little. Kaleil is the star of the film as his obsession with the company consumes him and drives him insane. It is amazing to see Kaleil on financial talk shows and rubbing elbows with President Bill Clinton. The guy has a good look and could have been a big star in business. Tom is overshadowed by the more outgoing Kaliel. His story is the saddest as the struggles with the company not only affect him, Kaleil, and the employees, but his little daughter that cries anytime he has to be away from her. That little girl is very cute, and when she starts to break down when Tom says he has to go back to the office, you want to bawl. This movie plays as a historical document of the downfall of not only Govworks, but much of the recent tech industry that was unable to sustain their initial momentum. The story of the Govworks startup could be transplanted to Pets.com or Webvan.com easily as both of those are now gone. This is not a great movie since you see where it is going right from the beginning, but the fact that it was caught on film makes it quite fascinating and well worth a look. Final Review: 3 stars out of 5; 7 out of 10; B; thumbs up.

Next week we have the movies Zoolander, Hearts in Atlantis,  and Don't Say a Word. Ben Stiller, Anthony Hopkins, and Michael Douglas will try to get us out of our movie slump and life funk. They may not open too well, but both of them have a good chance of at least kicking Hardball out of the top spot. Bye for now.