Tuesday January 25, 2000

'Next Friday' Recaptures Box Office Crown

By Dade Hayes

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Miramax's ``Down to You'' dropped a peg on the box office charts when actual weekend totals were released Monday, as New Line's ``Next Friday'' emerged the winner for a second consecutive round.

The two mini-majors jockeyed fiercely in their Sunday estimates, with Miramax predicting $8.3 million and New Line looking for $8.2 million for the three days.

The official tally favored New Line, which reported $8 million for ``Next Friday.'' Miramax proved much less accurate, as ``Down to You'' actually amassed $7.6 million.

While distributors commonly overestimate Sunday, the Miramax call was, in relative terms, fairly egregious. And, New Liners grumbled, it conveniently catapulted the company into the No. 1 spot.

Miramax's ``Down,'' a romantic comedy starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Julia Stiles, targeted teen girls. With Sunday's championship football telecasts luring away male moviegoers, Miramax

officials expected girls to be down with ``Down.'' Given grosses of $3.1 million both Friday and Saturday, they looked for Sunday's total to comprise 25% of the weekend take. Instead, it came in at 18%.

New Line distribution chief David Tuckerman said ``Next Friday'' continues to outpace

expectations. It's clearly the mini-major's biggest box office performer since last summer's ''Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.''

The total haul for the hip-hop comedy sequel starring Ice Cube stands at a sturdy $31.8 million, well beyond the $27.5 million amassed by the original 1995 pic ``Friday.''

Tuckerman said ``Next'' will likely stay in the neighborhood of 1,200 screens heading into its third week.

In other box office news Monday, DreamWorks set plans to boost ``American Beauty,'' winner of three Golden Globes on Sunday, to about 750 screens from its current 267. The move will come Feb. 18, three days after Oscar nominations are announced. The picture began a platform run last Sept. 15 and opened nationwide Oct. 1.

The top 10 contained two other new entries. ``Play it to the Bone'' opened at No. 9 with a

flyweight $3.5 million, just ahead of ``Angela's Ashes'' (Paramount), which went wide with $3.3 million after four weeks in limited release.

``Ashes,'' based on Frank McCourt's harrowing best selling memoirs of his poverty-stricken upbringing in Limerick, Ireland, enjoyed the second-highest average in the top 10 -- $5,410 from just 610 screens. Its 31-day total is $3.7 million.

``Play it to the Bone,'' a boxing comedy starring Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas as two washed-up pugilists, averaged just $2,249 from 1,556 screens. At least it did better than director Tim Robbins' 1930s theater tale ``Cradle Will Rock,'' which expanded to 506 screens and earned just $600,000. Both films were released by Walt Disney Co.

According to Exhibitor Relations, which collects the studios' data, the top 12 films this weekend grossed a combined $60.9 million, down 27 percent from a week ago, and down three percent from the year-ago period when the teen comedy ``Varsity Blues'' topped the list for a second weekend.

``The Hurricane,'' starring Denzel Washington in a biopic loosely based on the wrongful

imprisonment of boxer Rubin ''Hurricane'' Carter, has earned about $23.4 million after 26 days of release.

The talking mouse picture ``Stuart Little'' (Columbia) slipped two places to No. 4 with $6.5 million in its sixth weekend, taking its 38 day total to $117 million.

``The Green Mile'' (Warner Bros.) held steady at No. 5 with $5.5 million. After 45 days in release, the Tom Hanks Death Row drama has earned $109.7 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were DreamWorks' ``Galaxy Quest'' at No. 6 with $4.8 million (30-day total $54.6 million); Columbia's ``Girl, Interrupted'' at No. 7 with $4.4 million (34-day total $16.3 million); and Paramount's ``The Talented Mr. Ripley'' at No. 8 with $3.9 million (30-day total $68.4 million).

Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd. Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. Warner Bros. is also a unit of Time Warner Inc. DreamWorks SKG is privately held. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. (6758.T) (NYSE:VIA - news) (NYSE:TWX - news) (NYSE:DIS - news) (Toronto:VO.TO - news)

Top 10 movies at the box office:

1. Next Friday                         $8.0 million

2. Down to You                        $7.6 million

3. The Hurricane                       $6.5 million

4. Stuart Little                         $6.4 million

5. The Green Mile                     $5.4 million

6. Galaxy Quest                         $4.5 million

7. Girl, Interrupted                     $4.3 million

8. The Talented Mr. Ripley         $3.7 million

9. Play it to the Bone $3.4 million

10. Angelas Ashes $3.2 million

JOHN L.: Another week of who is on top at the box office. I had to wait for the final results because the makers of Down to You overestimated the weekend totals. They said they were going to get $8.3 million and the Next Friday guys were saying 8.2 million. That is too close to call, and I got burned a few months ago when Fight Club jumped up to #1 when it was estimated at #3. Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson have used to combine their box office might to make another bomb. No one cares about those two anymore if they ever did. Antonio needs to go back to doing the Mambo, and WH needs to start tending bar for real. Angela Ashes is our 5th movie in the top 10 based on a book. It was a best seller, but it is too artsy fartsy to get any major cash. Let’s go through the 3 new entries in the top 10.

Down to You tried, but fell short of putting down Ice Cube. Another victory over da man by Cube. Chic’s son is becoming a very popular teen romance movie actor. He had the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise and the She’s All That movies that made him somewhat of a name. He even put his name in the hat for consideration of playing Peter Parker in the Spider-man movie. Prnize Jr. is a likable enough guy, but he needs to get out of this teen angst comedy romance stuff. He’s almost 24 years old and still acts like he is 17. This movie is not even a date picture. It is all teen girl appeal. Henry Winkler shows up as Prinze’s father in the movie. Fonzie has been in a couple of big hits in the last few years such as Scream and Waterboy. However, I don’t see DTY making over a $100 million. This movie was not screened for critics over the weekend so that Friday it could make more money without being soiled by Roger Ebert or Peter Travers’ big mouths. I don’t think it made much of a difference. The overestimated Sunday totals showed that. Studios need to realize that people who see these genre type of pictures do not care about reviews. They care about the previews and the stars. If the preview shows that there is some kind of nice romance and some dude declares his love for his girlfriend on national tv, you have your ahhhh factor right there. Just because some critic says it’s hokey, stupid, and formulaic means nothing. The public knows what they are getting and a lot of people like those formulas and expect movies to follow them. Boy needs a girl, boy finds a girl, girl says maybe, guy gets serious and gets girl, girl starts to fall in love, guy screws up by getting caught with the town bitch or just plain forgets to call, girl slaps boy, girl leaves boy and cries in shower, guy makes a pussy out of himself and begs forgiveness, girl says no, girl is in some sort of danger, guy saves girl, girl wants rescue sex, guy says nah you suck, boy gets with town bitch, nice girl turns lesbian,boy proposes to town bitch, town bitch sees she has a sugardaddy and says yess but does not love boy but boy likes the sex, lesbian exgirl dumps lesbian who starts dating the school geek, boy has wedding with town bitch, dumped girl crashes wedding and runs off with the groom and rides a bus into the sunset and their future. Or some variant thereof.

Award for worst title in the top 10 goes to our number 9 movie, Play it to the Bone. Woody "if Coach had lived I would really have no carer Harrelson and Antonio how do you say ahh yes Banderas play 2 friends who have to box each other. Yeah like these guys look believable. They get to pal around 2 chicks in Lolita Davidovitch and Lucy "Ally’s Girlfriend" Liu. This movie is a victim of a preview that did not spark any interest from the masses. There is already one serious boxing movie in the top 10 that is getting good responses, and this comedy road picture is coming out at the wrong time. The high point of the preview was LD about to punch Lucy L. and they cut away before the punch lands. I wanted to see what happened so I almost went to see this picture just for that one scene. Fortunately, I was watching one of those movie review programs and they showed the entire punch and landing. Not very well shot, but now I get to save $7.50. Banderas is looking to repeat the success he had as Zorro, but stuff like 13th Warrior, Crazy in Alabama, and Play it to the Bone is not going to do it. Looks like he will be playing 2nd fiddle to Zeta Jones again or kissing Tom Hanks if he wants to enter the top 5 on opening week again. Woody H. is a strange hemp obsessed actor. It may be time to look up Wesley Snipes number in his rolodex and make another movie together. How about Blade 2? Woody can play a vampire or something since sucking is talent that seems to come natural to him. Writer/Director Ron Shelton is a nutcase for these sports movies and he is still riding the success he had for writing lines about the small of a woman’s back in Bull Durham which is one of my top 30 least favorite movies that a lot of people like. This is his second boxing movie after coming up short with the Great White Hype. He needs to go back to baseball since that seems to appeal to the masses better or even basketball like in White Men Can’t Jump. The last successful boxing movie was Rocky 4 back when boxing matches were just straightforward I punch you you punch me one of us falls down or none of us do. But the decade of the 90s showed that the drama of real life boxing is far superior to anything Hollywood has yet to come up with. Goodbye guys, you will not be here next week.

Ashes to Ashes we all fall down because movies about tortured children in Ireland are just not that exciting. People talk about how there is too much violence and sex in movies and that it is ruining our society, but if you show real life brutality and tragedy it is okay. It becomes art if a kid was really a victim of starvation and world war violence. Joy, I want to see that. These real life things should not be made into movies because they are too sad and cannot really show the horror of living in famine can be. It sort of cheapens it when it is used as entertainment. Books can get away with this type of stuff more easily because you get more of the detail of what people are actually feeling. If the popularity of the book equaled the same in box office, then this movie would have made about $50 million. I am a librarian by trade, and this book was always on the reserve list. It was a true phenomenon. People felt for this guy Frank McCourt and his mom Angela. These movies are hard to watch, but if done well they can be engaging and critically successful with some Oscar nods as well. Movies about real life horror in the late 1930s and 1940s are always big winners at the Academy Awards but sucks when Billy Crystal or Whoopi Goldberg try to goof on Germans bombing villages or people starving to death. People wondered why Crystal did not do the Oscars a few years back its because he could not come up with a show tune to go with Jews being led to ovens and cyanide showers in Schindler’s List. Goldberg had to do the show that year and regretted the moment. People are not going out to see the movie because it is so distressing by reputation. Important movies are fine Hollywood, just don’t think that they will make a profit.

The Golden Globes aired this week, and I did not see them. Lot’s of people like them because they put comedy movies in separate categories and also give awards to television. I had a wrestling pay per view to watch so I had to pass. American Beauty and Toy Story 2 won best picture and Jim Carrey, Denzel Washington and Hilary Swank won in the actor categories for Man on the Moon and Boys Don’t Cry. These awards give you a hint about who will win or get nominated when the Oscars come out. They don’t always match but many times they do. I see American Beauty being nominated, but an Oscar win is questionable. Swank should be a top contender to win the Oscar because she played a gay girl who pretended to be a boy, fell in love with a girl, and then was murdered for being gender confused. The Academy loves that stuff, she is definitely a shoo in. Denzel has a strong chance of getting nominated and could possibly win his second Oscar based on the buzz. We will have to see what his competition is when the time comes. Carrey’s movie Man on the Moon did not do that well when it was expected to, so he may get Truman Showized this year as well. It may be time to talk out of his ass again. Toy Story may get a song nominee but it is a long shot to get the Beauty and the Beast treatment. I won’t go over the whole Golden Globes, but I will tell you that I will do a full review of the Oscar show when it comes around. I never miss that annual debacle. I will have my predictions the week before the show of what will win and not necessarily what I think should win because what I think really does not matter.

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

  1. Next Friday made it 2 weeks in a row against all odds.
  2. I see Next Friday being successful next Friday since it will still have little competition.
  3. Hurricane should stay in the top 10 for a while due to Denzel getting the Golden Globe.
  4. However, does anyone really care about who wins the Golden Globes?
  5. The makers of Hurricane are pissed at Selwyn Raab, a writer for the New York Times, for saying how the movie is inaccurate with the facts, so go to http://www.the-hurricane.com/speak.html to get the whole story.
  6. Stuart Little may have the distinction of being one of Michael J. Fox’s last movies since his Parkinsons disease is causing him to take time off from acting.
  7. I wonder if Antonion Banderas had played a death row inmate in The Green Mile if he would have kissed Tom Hanks again?
  8. Galaxy Quest has inspired Jonathan "Will Riker" Frakes to make his own sci fi spoof picture since his own Star Trek Next Generation work has given him ample experience at parodying science fiction tv shows and movies.
  9. Angelina Jolie was another Golden Globe winner for her role in Girl, Interrupted.
  10. Talented Mr. Damon did not win a Golden Globe, but some hope he gets an Oscar nod in the coming weeks.

A poor grossing week at the box office. Next week should continue the trend. But Dicrapio and Courtney Cock and her husband Lucky Bastard 1-800-CALL-ATT Guy are about to take over the box office with The Beach and Scream 3. I don’t see either movies doing as well as the producers hope. We shall certainly see and I will definitely be ready to goof. I have a special Scream retrospective ready for that weekend. Bye for now.

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