Oliver Stone Football Movie Is Box Office Champ
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Director Oliver Stone scored a box office touchdown as his football drama ``Any Given
Sunday'' led the pack at a busy Christmas holiday box office, according to
studio estimates issued on Sunday.The $55-million ensemble drama, which stars Al Pacino as an aging pro-football coach struggling to come to terms with the
pressures of the modern game, earned about $14.25 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period, and $21.29 million since its
Wednesday opening, said the film's distributor, Warner Bros.
Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx and a slew of gridiron greats costar. A studio spokesman said the three-day haul marks a new
record for Stone, whose previous best opening was $11.2 million for ``Natural Born Killers'' in August 1994. That film went
on to make about $50 million.
Opening at No. 2 was the homoerotic thriller ``The Talented Mr. Ripley'' with a two-day total of $13.8 million since it
opened on Christmas Day, said Paramount Pictures, which is distributing the film in North America. Its per-screen average of
$5,982 from 2,307 sites was the highest in the top 10.
Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, the film stars Matt Damon as a con artist who enjoys his new life in 1950s Italy so
much that he kills his new chums to ensure that it will last. Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law costar for director Anthony
Minghella (''The English Patient'').
The other new entries in the top 10 were Universal's ``Man on the Moon,'' starring Jim Carrey as late comic Andy Kaufman,
tied at No. 5 with ``The Green Mile'' with $9.0 million; and DreamWorks' Tim Allen sci-fi comedy ``Galaxy Quest'' at No. 8
with a two-day sum of $8.1 million.
Last week's champ, ``Stuart Little,'' tied at No. 3 with ''Toy Story 2'' with $12.5 million. Columbia originally reported $12.0
million for ``Stuart'' and estimated $11.5 million for Walt Disney Pictures' ``Toy 2,'' but subsequently upgraded its talking
mouse film so that it would at least be on level pegging with the Disney cartoon. More accurate data will be issued on
Monday.
The 10-day total for ``Stuart Little'' stands at $40.2 million, while ``Toy Story 2'' has $179.9 million. Disney expects it to
reach $200 million by Dec. 31.
According to Exhibitor Relations Co., which collects the studios' estimates, the top 12 movies this weekend grossed a
combined $104 million, down 27 percent from the year-ago period, when the top four films -- headed by ``Patch Adams''
with $25.3 million -- all scored more than ``Any Given Sunday.''
Of course, it helped that Christmas Day 1998 fell on a Friday, allowing the studios to maximize their weekend haul.
Several movies opened in limited release, most based on books or plays (figures are three-day sums, unless otherwise
indicated). ``Girl, Interrupted,'' Columbia's adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's memoir about a two-year-stay in a mental
hospital, starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, earned $118,000 from nine screens.
Paramount's big screen version of ``Angela's Ashes,'' based on Frank McCourt's bestselling autobiography of a poverty
stricken Irish childhood, posted a two-day sum of $60,000 from six sites.
``Snow Falling on Cedars'' (Universal), taken from David Guterson's hit novel about the murder trial of a Japanese fisherman
in the Pacific Northwest, grossed $29,000 from three sites in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto.
Anthony Hopkins' turn as the title character in ``Titus'' (Fox Searchlight), a colorful update of Shakespeare's brutal play
``Titus Andronicus,'' carved up a two-day sum of $25,000 from two sites.
Since opening on Wednesday, ``Man on the Moon'' has grossed about $13.8 million. Its three-day average was a solid
$4,329. Critics generally savaged the movie, which was directed by Milos Forman. ``Galaxy Quest,'' in which Allen plays a
has-been sci-fi TV star recruited by aliens to save their world, had a two-day average of $3,358.
Rounding out the top 10 were Touchstone's ``Bicentennial Man'' at No. 7 with $8.3 million (10-day sum $22.5 million);
Touchstone's Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo at No. 9 with $6.2 million (17-day sum $35.4 million); and Fox's ``Anna and the
King'' at No. 10 with $4.7 million (10-day sum $13.5 million).
Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony
Corp. Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures are units of Walt Disney Co. Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram
Co. Ltd. DreamWorks SKG is privately held. Fox Searchlight and Twentieth Century Fox are units of Fox Entertainment
Group Inc.
there be all that interesting. As of this writing, several real life
football players are going through their own turmoil that is much more
interesting and dramatic than what the movies come up with. Pacino and
Stone are actors/directors who everyone knows, but they don't go to see on film
too often. I would have to say the draw was Diaz, Foxx, and Ladies Love Cool
James. Diaz looks good in the preview yelling at Pacino, Foxx looks like
is playing a more serious role than he does on television and his other movies,
and L. L. has been pretty good in the last few movies he's done, so people said,
hey this might be interesting. Football movies have done pretty well over
the past year with Waterboy and Varsity Blues doing good box office.
It must be difficult to goof on a sport that continues to goof on itself a whole
lot better. Just showing them do drugs, fight teammates, and say that
black guys can't play quarterback is nothing new to those who watch Sportscenter. 
had
opened Friday instead of Saturday. Stupid producers. Any movie that
shows a woman being startled and yelling "woo" tends to earn a lot of
money at the box office. Paltrow gets jumpy around Damon, boom, $13.8
million. Here is the lesson the movie is trying to send. Don't trust
pretty boys. And don't trust people who say they remember you, but you don't
remember them. That means scam folks. I generally do not like Gwen Paltrow in
movies, especially ones in which she uses a foreign (British) accent.
However, I do like it when she is being stalked or a target of killer.
Seven is her greatest flick. I only wish her a long a successful career
and hope that no physical harm ever comes to her just so I can see it happen
over and over again on film. She just rubs me the wrong way. Matt
Damon is an overrated actor who has gotten very lucky by scoring huge with two
movies, Good Will Hunting, and Saving Private Ryan. It looks like he
should break off that goofy relationship he has with Ben Afflected because he is
just holding him down. Damon was the star in Hunting, with Affleck
more of a background character. He is the title character in Saving
Private Ryan and that was a huge hit. He teams up with Affleck on equal
terms in Dogma and he gets his wings clipped a bit. Drop the sidekick
dude. 
"why should I care about the life story of the guy who played Latka on
Taxi?" I would say less 5% of the world remember Kaufman in things
other than his mainstream tv work. Most of the wrestling stuff happened in
Tennessee and the only thing that happened nation wide was the Lawler incident
on David Letterman which occured around 1:00 am. Another thing is that
Kaufman's whole act was to be funny by not being funny at all. He would
read whole books on stage and then walk off and say good night. He played a
slimy lounge singer named Tony Clifton who was famous for being Kaufman's split
personality and being kicked of studio lots. In fact, Kaufman rarely played the
character and it was done mostly by Bob Zmuda. Lounge acts are rarely
good, and ones that try to be purposely bad never work. Just looking at
Carrey in the previews you can tell that he is not really doing a godd Kaufman
impersonation. He is overacting the part with wide eyes and big
grins. Kaufman was more laid back and subtle. Carrey is basically
doing his own act while wearing a Kaufman wig. Carrey also tried to play
it real while filming by making everyone call him Andy and he went as far as
even pretending he injured his neck filming the wrestling scenes with Jerry
Lawler. And speaking of wrestling, it has been a bad year for movie promotion on
wrestling shows. Ben Stiller showed up on WWF RAW to promote Mystery Men
and it failed miserably. Arnold Schwarzeneggger fought Triple H on WWF
Smackdown to hype End of Days and it is already out of the top ten with less
than $60 million and costing over $100 million. Jim Carrey Movies usually
open from $25 to 45 million, he gets some hype on WWF shows since Lawler and Jim
Ross the head commentator are both in Man on the Moon. It is a jinx.
Not many of the young audience that enjoys Carrey remember Taxi unless they
watch TV Land all day to see the reruns, and they probably don't since Taxi was
more of an adult comedy and not as low brow as some of the ones that came out of
that time period. Another problem is that Kaufman was just 35 when he
died. He did not have that much of a career. He never had a hit movie. In
fact the only real movie he ever did was Heartbeeps and good luck to you if you
can find it. Heck, he was voted by the viewers of Saturday Night Live to
never show up on the show again. So, was Kaufman brilliant, a genius, a
revolutionary comic? No, not really. Is Carrey good at acting a fool
and tugging at emotions when he gets sick with lung cancer? Yeah,
probably. The previews make you think everyone loved Kaufman and knew he
would be huge and cheer his every step when he did stand up or comedy
routines. That was not necessarily the case. The only thing he did
really well was go from the Foreign Man character to Elvis and back to the
Foreign Man again. However, that bit only works if you don't know who
Kaufman is, and from the looks of its first 5 days at the holiday box office,
not many people care. 
true
entertainment phenomenon. Trekkies was seemed harsh, but it never made any
real commentary on the people and just showed what they do. I am glad we
live in a society in which people can worry more about fictional things and
escape the horrors of real life struggles. GQ tries to be a homage to the cast
and fans of sci fi shows from the past. It looks sort of like if the cast
of Space: 1999 got back together to save the world. Martin Landau and Barbara
Bain together again. Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver have had some success
in movies, with Allen getting the Toy Story gig and Weaver with her aliens, so
the leads do have experience in fantasy. The premise of the sci fi actors
actually going on a real mission to save a far off planet is quite intriguing
and ripe with possiblities. Over the years the Star Trek cast has
complained about being type cast or just plain out of work when it comes to
acting in Hollywood. Allan Rickman plays the resident intelligent alien of
reason (see Spock) who has the Shakespeare training but cannot escape his tired
catch phrase when approached by people on the street. GQ opened on
Christmas day and lost a day of box office, but it is on track to make more
money than Man on the Moon. It does have a problem though. Star Trek
fans hate being goofed on. Trekkies, Free Enterprise with William Shatner, and
Spaceballs failed to make money. Star Trek is taken very seriously and to
make light of its ideals is not allowed. Heck, Shatner, Nimoy, Doohan,
Nichols, Takei, and even "Q" himself have written Star Trek
books. Once you have gained the trust of the science fiction audience,
it's very difficult to lose it. Lost in Space and Babylon 5 have a strong
following. I am one of those Star Trek and sci fi freaks that get goofed
on in movies and Saturday Night Live sketches. Just by taking the time to
write this website shows I need to try to "get a life." I don't
have plans to rush out to see GQ, but I am willing to give it a chance either
soon or when it comes out on video. Never retreat, and never surrender,
live long and prosper, warning warning, danger Will Robinson, all alone in the
night. One of those catch phrases doesn't belong... yet. 