Mel Gibson replaces "Grinch" atop U.S. box office

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES, Dec 17 (Reuters) - ``What Women Want'' ... is Mel Gibson.

The Australian star's first pure romantic comedy set a new December record as it opened at No. 1 at the North American weekend box office with ticket sales of $34.4 million, according to studio estimates issued Sunday.

If estimates hold when final data are released Monday, the Paramount Pictures comedy will also rank as Gibson's best opening, beating the kidnap thriller ``Ransom,'' which bowed with $34.2 million in November 1996.

``What Women Want'' also surpasses 1997's ``Scream 2'' ($32.9 million) as the strongest film launched in December. Paramount is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA - news) (NYSE:VIAb - news).

Gibson plays a macho ad exec whose appreciation of both the fairer sex and of his own shortcomings improves when he is suddenly able to read women's thoughts. Helen Hunt co-starred, and Nancy Meyers (``The Parent Trap'' remake) directed. Paramount vice-chairman Rob Friedman said the movie skewed toward women and mature audiences, with polling indicating that 60 percent of the audience was female.

The weekend's two other wide new releases also offered surprises: the strong No. 2 bow of teen comedy ``Dude, Where's My Car'' ($14.0 million) and the apparently low-key No. 4 debut of the new Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS - news) cartoon ``The Emperor's New Groove'' ($10.0 million).

After four weekends at No. 1, ``Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' (Universal) fell to No. 3 with $13.0 million, taking its 31-day total to $212.9 million. The film lost 30 percent of the previous weekend's audience -- the smallest erosion in the top 10.

The Jim Carrey yuletide comedy passed the $200 million mark on Friday night -- its 29th day -- much faster than the year's other $200 million movie, ``Mission: Impossible 2,'' which took 43 days to reach that level and ended up with $215.4 million. Universal is a unit of Vivendi Universal (NYSE:V - news).

``Dude, Where's My Car?'' -- whose plot is completely explained by the title -- was not screened in advance for critics by its distributor, Twentieth Century Fox. The strategy is usually employed when a studio expects the reviews will not help business. A review scheduled for publication in Monday's Daily Variety described the movie as ``a slapdash slacker/stoner comedy that appears to have been made by the proudest underachievers this side of Bart Simpson.''

Bruce Snyder, Fox's domestic distribution president, said the $13 million-budgeted movie, which stars Ashton Kutcher (television's ``That '70s Show'') and Seann William Scott, played squarely to the teen crowd, which has been ignored by the studios in recent weeks. Fox is a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. (NYSE:FOX - news).

On the other hand, generally glowing reviews did not produce majestic opening numbers for Disney's ``The Emperor's New Groove,'' a buddy comedy about a peasant who helps an imperious ruler reclaim his throne. The characters are voiced by TV actors John Goodman and David Spade, respectively.

``Ten million dollars -- people don't turn their heads anymore,'' said Chuck Viane, president of distribution at Disney's Buena Vista Pictures marketing unit, who nonetheless added the opening exceeded his expectations.

He predicted the film would draw big family crowds in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, following in the footsteps of last holiday's sleeper hit ``Stuart Little,'' which made its debut at No. 1 exactly a year ago with $15 million.

Tracking firm Exhibitor Relations calculated the top 12 movies this weekend grossed $98.6 million, up 22 percent from last weekend, and up 33 percent from the year-ago period. New releases on Dec. 22 include Nicolas Cage's ``Family Man,'' Sandra Bullock's ``Miss Congeniality'' and Tom Hanks' ``Cast Away.''

Last weekend's new releases did not fare well.

The mountaineering thriller ``Vertical Limit'' (Columbia) fell three places to No. 5 with $9.0 million, losing 43 percent of its audience; hostage drama ``Proof of Life'' (Warner Bros.) also fell three places, to No. 6, with $5.2 million, off 49 percent; and the fantasy drama ``Dungeons & Dragons'' (New Line) fell four places to No. 9 with $2.2 million, off 69 percent -- the biggest fall in the top 10.

``Vertical Limit'' has grossed $28.7 million to date, ``Proof of Life'' $18.6 million and ``Dungeons'' $10.9 million. Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. , while Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema are units of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX - news).

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the December 15-17 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

Title Gross Gross

1. What Women Want ............   $33,614,543

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $33,614,543

2. Dude, Where's My Car? .............  $13,845,914

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $13,845,914

3. How The Grinch Stole Christmas ........ $13,805,465

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $213,634,400

4. The Emperor's New Groove ............ $9,812,302

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $9,812,302

5. Vertical Limit .......... $9,103,866

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $28,811,128

6. Proof of Life .......... $5,382,656

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $18,771,182

7. Unbreakable .......... $3,734,493

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $83,119,244

8. 102 Dalmatians  .......... $2,664,601

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $47,995,472

9. Dungeons & Dragons .......... $2,438,086

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $11,147,608

10. Rugrats in Paris: The Movie  .......... $1,839,832

BOX OFFICE SO FAR:  $62,968,809

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

JOHN L.:  Another interesting week at the box office.  Mel Gibson re-established himself as a box office draw, partly saving Helen Hunt's career.  The Grinch has become Jim Carrey's most successful film. Stupid "dude" comedies still make money, thank you Mr. Spicoli.  David Spade may be hated by his assistant, but he is still ignored by the general public when it comes to his feature films. As is usually the case, there is lots to cover including a full review of "Dude, where's my car?"  

For years, Mel Gibson has been the Pamela Anderson for women.  Ever since Mel's nude scene in Lethal Weapon, women have put up with all of his violent action movies just to see him smirk and act goofy.  Mel is every woman's fantasy, but most of Mr. Gibson's films have been pretty male centric.  What Women Want is his first foray into full blown romantic comedy, "Bird on the Wire" with Goldie Hawn notwithstanding.  The role of a guy who gets electrocuted from a hair dryer being able to read the minds of all females, including animals it seems, and then using that to pick up chicks is a goofy enough premise that it might attract a large audience.  WWW obviously tapped into a misused niche of the movie going public.  Women who would like to see Mel Gibson in a movie where he is not shooting or stabbing somebody.  This movie is reaching an exceedingly large female audience, but guys seem to be avoiding it.  Why is that?  Because the movie does not play fair.  Mel Gibson does not need to read minds to pick up women.  What women want is him, period.  Knowing that they want to be held or listened to or massaged or tickled behind their left ear is irrelevant when you are one of People magazine's sexiest men alive.  Men are jealous of Mel when their wives or girlfriends swoon over him, so they are tending to stay away from the movie.  If the lead character was played by oh, how about David Spade, then there would be a reason to be clairvoyant.  But, the preview of this movie was well done and established the premise perfectly.  However, looking at the preview it seems that women want to jog, exercise in tight leotards, and look at male crotches.  Helen Hunt shows up as the love interest and appears in her 3rd movie in 2 months, with her fourth, Castaway, coming out next week.  She has made more movies in the last year than she has in the last 10 years.  You could say she has been overexposed, but What Women Want is the first movie people have gone to see her in since As Good as it Gets.  I wonder if What Women Want's premise could be reversed in the sequel, What Women Want.  As a man, let me take a crack at that.  Men want to be fed all the time, watch sports uninterrupted, a subscription to the Victoria Secret catalog, and a wife/girlfriend who doesn't yell at as when we don't know what they want.

DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR? - FULL REVIEW

Back in 1982, a little movie called Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a big hit and it introduced the world to Sean Penn as the pizza loving stoner, Jeff Spicoli.  He was probably the first one to use the word "duude" in a sentence in a theatrical film. That character has spawned a long list of idiots who somehow bumble their way through life and come out on top.  Bill and Ted, Wayne and Garth, Beavis and Butthead, and now we have Jesse (Ashton Kutcher)  and Chester (Sean William Scott).  Jesse and Chester wake up one morning to realize they have no memory of the last 12 hours or so.  They then come to realize that Jesse's car is missing and they were too stoned to remember where they put it.  So, they proceed to go on a quest to find the car and find out why they have a years supply of pudding in their refrigerator.  The premise of this movie is very similar to the Beavis and Butthead Do America cartoon where they lost their television and went on a road trip to find it.  That cartoon took them all over the country, but DWMC stays pretty much in the local neighborhood area.  This movie is full of gags and situations to get a laugh from the audience and many times it succeeds.  I am a personal fan of both lead actors.  Kutcher plays Kelso on "That 70s Show" and is the only one I can really stand to watch.  Scott is in his third movie of the year and his fourth in the past year and a half.  He is best known as Stifler from American Pie.  His facial expressions are priceless and are the best second only to Robert Deniro in Meet the Parents.  Their energy and comic timing help move the film along.  On their quest for the car they find out that they have stolen money from a deranged stripper, acquired a intergalactic space device that may hold the key to all life in the universe, and worst of all, forgot that it is the anniversary of their dating of the twin girls who home they trashed during their pleasure spree the night before.  I enjoyed the individual bits that were supposed to be funny especially their quests to make the twins happy, their impromptu music video, and their tattoo confusion.  However, the main problem with the film is that it has no focus.  The story does not know what it wants to focus on.  You think the film will be just some sort of crazy sex comedy as they travel around, but it then quickly turns into a pseudo sci-fi adventure with 50 foot aliens, and then there is a strange side trip into the dungeon of an ostrich wrangler who has Andy Dick trapped in a cage.  The ostrich stuff was sort of funny but eventually became pointless and slowed the film down big time.  I think the writer of the movie created this after a similar night of drinking and various other mind altering substances.  The movie just becomes too silly to fully enjoy.  It also does not help that this is another in a long line of movies this year that would have been helped greatly if it was rated R like other movies of this type would have been years ago before the government and watchdog groups started messing things up.  You have Kristy Swanson, the twins, the strip club, the wet t-shirts, and the alien women who are willing to provide oral pleasure bouncing around in a PG-13 world.  It's just not fair.  A harder and raunchier edge might have helped this film do better.  An R rating is not the kiss of death Hollywood.  Just look at the Wayan's Brothers counting the cash from the very adult rated Scary Movie that is going to be unwatchable once it shows up on FOX television in all of its edited glory.  When DWMC was over I found myself enjoying the film, but it is hard to actually recommend it.  It is a fair time killer, but way to stupid and disjointed to appeal to an audience outside the 13 to 24 range.  The movie needed to take more chances and have a better focus.  The science fiction stuff should have been dropped and turned into some kind of gangs looking for a drug stash that Jesse and Chester used to get stoned so now they have to avoid being killed by them.  Or something like that.  Oh well.  Final Review:  2 stars out of 5; 5 out of 10; C; thumbs down.  I did like it for the most part, personally, but I cannot tell anyone to go see it and look myself in the mirror.

One of the dumbest fairy tales is the one about the Emperor's new clothes.  I could never understand the point of that one where the dumb ruler runs around naked and doesn't realize it.  The writer of that one must have been smoking the same stuff the writer of Dude Where's My Car was.  When I heard about this new Disney movie, The Emperor's New Groove, I thought it was a variation on the other story so I planned to avoid it.  There has been little mass promotion for this flick in the last few weeks, and I did not know what it was about until about 2 weeks ago.  The plot is about Emperor Kuzco, voiced by David "I miss Chris" Spade who angers Eartha Kitt for some reason and she turns him into a llama.  I don't understand where the groove part comes in, but that is why you have to go see the movie to get questions like that answered.  John Goodman plays a peasant who helps Spade do his Stella impersonation.  This movie has had some production problems over the years such as most of the original Sting songs being cut out of the film when the musical element was taken out.  Disney cartoons usually open very well regardless of what time of the year it is.  An opening gross of at least $25 million is expected on the Disney name alone.  However, this one couldn't beat a 5 week old Grinch movie that had already made $200 million.  Once again, it's all about the preview.  It did not make the movie look very good.  In fact, it probably made most people ignore the release.  The animation looks similar to that of Hercules which was not well received when it was released a few years ago.  Movies like Tarzan, Lion King, and Mulan have really well animated sequences and stories that draw children and adults to them.  Turning a guy into a llama is not all that interesting.  Another thing that probably hurt the film is David Spade not really changing his voice for the part.  He sounds too much like his "Just Shoot Me" character.  Robbie Benson was the voice of the Beast, and you have to be told that since his voice is completely different in that cartoon.  If a star does a cartoon character, it helps if the voice is very different than their regular one since it stops the audience from picturing the actor in a studio babbling into a microphone.  The only actors who have been able to keep their own voice for cartoon are Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, but they had the good fortune to be part of a good script and uniquely animated special effects.  Emperor's New Groove will have a lot of trouble making a lot of money this holiday season, but it should do better than any Fox Studios animated film. 

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

1.    What a difference a year makes for Jim Carrey.

2.    A year ago, Carrey was in the dumps because his pet project, Man in the Moon was bombing, but a year later he is in the biggest movie of his career.

3.    Look for Halloween is Grinch Night, Valentines Day is Grinchy, and Here Comes Grinch Cottontail in the coming years.

4.    The Grinch vs the Mask would be a good fight though.

5.    Veritcal Limit is still trying to hang in there as a top 10 movie at the box office.

6.    Pretty soon there will be little proof left that Russell and Meg were ever in a movie together.

7.    Unbreakable probably would have made more money if someone had told M. Knight that the Samuel L. Jackson wig was definitely uncool.

8.    Maybe if Cruella Deville had tried to boil a dalmation, the movie would have done better at the box office.

9.    Dungeons and Dragons continues to prove that full blown fantasy stories should stick to the printed page or the 20 sided die.

10.    Aurevoir les enfants Rugrats. 

The big guns come out next week at the box office. We have Wes Craven's Dracula 2000 just getting in under the wire, Family Man showing that Clarence the Angel is not the only one needing wings, and Tom Hanks trying to cause Helen Hunt to be in the number 1 and 2 film in the country at the same time with Castaway.  In a couple of weeks I will have my year 2000 box office review with my best and worst of picks.  I will also finally have my report on the government's interference in my entertainment.   The fun never ends.  Bye for now.