'Dinosaur' Squashes 'Gladiator' at Box Office
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In a box office battle between two pictures
set in ancient times, Disney's animated ``Dinosaur''scored the highest opening of the year as it doubled the haul of reigning champ ``Gladiator.''
According to studio estimates released Sunday, ``Dinosaur'' debuted with about $38.6 million for the Friday-to-Sunday
weekend, while ``Gladiator'' pulled in $19.1 million in its third round. The college comedy ``Road Trip'' opened at No. 3 with
$15.0 million, matching its production cost.
Box office analysts estimated ``Dinosaur's'' reign would be short though, as Tom Cruise blasts into movie theaters Wednesday
with Paramount Pictures' ``Mission: Impossible 2.''
Meanwhile, John Travolta's critically lambasted sci-fi action drama ``Battlefield Earth'' mined $3.8 million, losing two-thirds of
its opening weekend audience as bad word-of-mouth kept viewers away.
With a reported cost of at least $125 million, ``Dinosaur'' surpasses ``Gladiator'' as the best debut of 2000 and also ranks No.
20 on the all time openings, a Disney spokeswoman said. It marks Disney's third-best opening ever, behind 1999's ``Toy Story
2'' ($57.4 million) and 1994's ``The Lion King'' ($40.9 million).
Its Saturday haul of $16.3 million is the second highest for Disney after $21.4 million for ``Toy Story 2.''
The film's opening underscores ``the love affair the world has with dinosaurs,'' said Chuck Viane, president of Walt Disney
Co.'s Buena Vista Pictures distribution unit.
The company went into the weekend forecasting between $33.5 million and $35.5 million, and Viane said it could end up in the
$39 million area once final data are released Monday. After next weekend, when movie-going will be boosted by the Memorial
Day holiday, the picture should be in the ``upper 80s,'' he predicted.
``Dinosaur'' tells the tale of a friendly iguanodon named Aladar and his adoptive family of lemurs who join other beasts on a
long trek in search of the fabled nesting grounds after a meteor shower destroys their habitat. Along the way, the audience is
reminded of the importance of family and working together for a common goal.
Russell Crowe's Roman epic ``Gladiator'' was expected to pass the century mark Sunday, its 17th day of release, and wrap the
weekend with $102.5 million in the till. Its domestic tally should eventually reach ``north of $175 million,'' said DreamWorks
distribution president Jim Tharp.
``The word of mouth is just incredible, and it's generating substantial repeat business, even among women who now make up
nearly 50 percent of the audience,'' said Tharp.
With its myriad executions and combat scenes, the film is geared toward males. But females sympathize with Crowe's
character, who avenges his family.
DreamWorks also distributed ``Road Trip'' and fellow new entry ``Small Time Crooks'' from Woody Allen that opened at No.
6 with $3.8 million.
``Road Trip'' follows four college kids who hit the road to intercept a home sex tape inadvertently mailed to one of the gang's
sweethearts. Todd Philips directs, and the biggest name is MTV's Tom Green who plays a supporting role as a character
named Barry Manilow.
``This is a tiny movie with no real stars in it,'' said executive producer Ivan Reitman, who added the film would be ''immensely
profitable.''
He said the audience was primarily under 25 years old, and the gender mix (males have made up 56 percent of the audience)
was better than expected for a movie chock full of sophomoric hi-jinks. ``The challenge is to make movies funny, which is
always hard to do. The trick is to have characters that you want to spend time with,'' he said.
According to DreamWorks' Tharp, ``Small Time Crooks'' marked director Allen's best opening in at least 20 years. Allen
plays a hapless bank robber, while English comic Tracey Ullman plays his wife. In a rare occurrence for an Allen piece, the film
played well to families, likely due to Ullman's presence, Tharp said.
``Battlefield Earth'' also reported $3.8 million, but played at almost four times as many theaters as ``Crooks'' (3,307 vs. 865).
It fell 67 percent from its opening round, as its 10-day total rose to $18.2 million.
The film should end up with about $25 million in returns domestically, said Warner Bros. distribution president Dan Fellman. It
could eke out a profit overall when international returns are factored in, he said. It cost about $70 million to make, he said.
Rounding out the top five were the submarine drama ``U-571'' (Universal) with $4.6 million and the time travel thriller
''Frequency'' (New Line) with $4.3 million. Their respective totals are $64.4 million after 31 days and $30.3 million after 24
days.
``Dinosaur'' is released by Walt Disney Pictures. DreamWorks SKG is privately held. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are
units of Time Warner Inc. Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd.. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc.
triceratops, t-rexes, and velociraptors run around and growl. PBS had a 3
hour special on dinosaurs with similar effects to Disney's Dinosaur and was
ratings blockbuster. However, this movie is being criticized for focusing
too much on matching the real life environments with computer generated
characters and not an interesting story or good dialogue. Also, the movie
rips off all the other Disney movies with the child separated from their parents
and being raised by a different species. Jungle Book, Tarzan, heck
even some of Lion King is very similar to this movie. We also get the all
star cast of actors who have nothing better to do than make faces in front of
microphones so they can emote their lines. The movie is said to be too
intense for little kids. No difference from all of the other horrors WD
cartoons have shown over the years that have given children nightmares for years
from the Witch ordering the hit on Snow White, Bambi's mom, that octopus chick
getting impaled by the boat in Little Mermaid, to Scar killing Simba's dad, to
the villain in Tarzan getting hung by the jungle vines. Disney movies are
awful for little kids that they are generally directed to. It is almost
like a Disney trademark. Dinosaur looks to be another big hit for the
studio, but if it is perceived as being a bit weak story wise, it could have
trouble making $100 million or the $200 million it needs to get to come close to
making money. I plan to see this movie this week and will have a full
review in the next report.
this
week's number 3 movie, Road Trip starring (sort of) Tom Green from MTV.
This movie is very similar to the style of last year's best movie, American
Pie. Road Trip is just okay. There is nothing that is fall on the
floor funny in RT, but there are funny bits. The problem of the movie is
pretty much it's premise. Through convoluted circumstances, our hero makes
a sex tape with a girl when he thinks his long time girlfriend has left him for
another guy. He soon finds out the real reason his real girl has not
called him and freaks when he finds out his infidelity video has been shipped
off to Austin, TX where she is going to college. He has 3 days to drive
1800 miles to intercept the package before his life is runied. This means
the title of the movie comes in as he and 3 of his buddies embark on a road
trip. However, Tom Green, who is the biggest star in the movie does not go
on the journey. He is actually the narrator of the movie and tells the
story in flashback to a group of Freshman entering Ithaca College. Green's
character has to stay behind and take care of the Jerry Seinfeld lookalike's pet
snake which causes all such of hilarity. If you have seen the preview
where he is putting the mouse in his mouth to entice the snake to eat then you
get the idea of what happens. It pretty
much shows most of the bit. Green, like pretty much the whole cast of the
movie are all good. You do care about this guy getting that tape back on
principle, but not because you really ever get to know what this guy is all
about. The only character that you really care about is Kyle, played
by D. J. Qualls. He has the so called character arc where he starts at one
place and ends at some other place by the end of the movie. Pretty much
you feel sorry for him because it his dad's car they use to start the road trip
and he is the one on the quest to get laid before he dies and if you have seen
the preview, they give that away too. The other character that is for
comic relief only is E.L played by Sean William Scott who was great as Stifler
in American Pie and as a tortured plane survivor in this year's Final
Destination. This guy is good and has one extreme laugh out loud scene in
a sperm bank when the four guys need to earn some cash to continue their
trip. His character stays the same cocky guy the whole 
time,
but he is funny. The movie is a bit too nice and not as hard core as it is
promoted to be. There is the eating the gross french toast scene but the
audience in the theater barely laughed because the comedy was quite
obvious. The bit is somebody defiles some food and then a hapless soul
eats the meal and goes "mmmm good." End of bit. No difference
here. There are too many scenes of the group just driving around with
nothing going on. The scenes in the frat house are funny, but not too
outrageous and a bit too politically correct. This was not too bad since
the 4 "white" guys end up at a Black fraternity, and are afraid they
won't be accepted by the "brothers." But after a feeling out
period both sides realize everybody is pretty cool and they all become
friends. Kyle meets the love of his life at this frat house and their
encounter is funny if not a little bit disturbing. Actually, it was a
little moving in its innocence. Road Trip is advertised as some out of
control sex romp but it is pretty much a nice warm movie with little
controversy. I wanted a little more raw activity. The 2 girls that
are the object of the lead's affection are very underdeveloped. The girl
who must not see the video is barely in the film and you never really care if he
saves her or not when you think about it because she is not hotter than the girl
that is on the sex video. She comes off as a wimpy chick that should be
dumped anyway. You only care about Josh's quest because it is the plot and
not because the girlfriend is worth it. Now the blonde bombshell that
forces Josh to
make this video is a cute little hottie. She is on Felicity as some person
named Ruby. She does the obligatory "Phoebe Cates nude scene of
implants could help but they will do" scene. Not bad. The most
interesting thing about her is that she pursues Josh and gets upset when she
thinks she can't get him much like guys are shown to get antsy when they are
afraid to go up to a pretty girl. She goes on her own road trip, but it is
not all that interesting since it is pretty clear what was going to happen to
her. Both girls Josh has to choose are good looking enough and nice enough
to go out with and he may as well just have flipped a coin. There should have
been a clearer choice or both should have been shown to be fantastic and dumping
any of them would be devestating. It did not matter which one he chose and
that hurts the film. I came out of the movie with a big eh. It was okay,
but not the funniest movie I have ever seen. It needed about 2 more crazy
bits and some more political incorrectness. It will probably disappoint
many people looking forward to it. Road Trip is funny and you will laugh
out loud, but the characters will not stick with you except maybe Kyle.
Final Review: 2 1/2 stars out of 5; 6 out of 10; C+; thumbs down. If
I had a thumbs in the middle choice I would give it that, but between up and
down, I have to say I cannot truly recommend Road Trip. Sorry.
This
movie has Allen plotting a bank robbery with his wife played by Tracey "I
created the Simpsons" Ullman and his buddies played by Jon Lovitz and
Michael "I'm not I'm not" Rapaport. Hugh Grant shows up as
somebody that mixes it up with Ullman. At least this movie has some
semblance of a plot. Allen has made caper movies before that were good and
this one looks like it might be a bit better than Celebrity. This movie
also has had more publicity that other Allen films and he is actually promoting
it in interviews in between boffing his ex girlfriend's adopted daughter.
I used to love Woody Allen movies. One of the funniest movies ever made
was "Take the Money and Run." Just pure comedy with no
pretentiousness. This is Allen's best film and one of the best movies
ever. Pretty much anything Allen did before Annie Hall is excellent from
Sleeper, Bananas, and Everything I wanted to Know About Sex But Was Afraid to
Ask. Annie Hall is okay, but that started him on this weird no more
slapstick type of comedy he was so good at. Since Annie Hall, he has made
2 really good movies, and two pretty good one. I really liked Zelig and
the way he put himself in old newsreel footage. Rent that movie, it is
great and I don't think Allen has any dialogue in it, but I'm not sure.
Very weird film. Purple Rose of Cairo is excellent about the movie
character walking off the screen into the real world. The best part of
that movie is the reaction to the actors in the movie who can't continue the
scene because the lead actor has just walked off. Hannah and Her Sisters
was cool and funny and Michael Caine deserved his Oscar. The only other Allen
movie that is watchable is Radio Days in which Woody narrates the whole time
without appearing on screen. This movie is a great retrospective of the
days when the country stopped to listen to the radio shows of the day. I
love old radio programs like The Shadow, Jack Benny, and the Bickersons and have
them in my own personal collection. I love this movie and it is one
of Allen's best films. His other stuff in the last 20 years has not looked
all that interesting and as you have been told, has not garnered much interest
from the public. Small Time Crooks has a good preview that has the funny bit
where Rapaport wears his hard hat backwards because it looks cool. That
gets a laugh and I guess puts a few butts in the seats. There is a chance
STC may be around in the top 10 for a few more weeks, or at least longer than
Battlefield Earth.