Carrey's 'Grinch' Grabs More Green at Box Office
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jim Carrey's ``Grinch'' comedy remained No. 1 at the box office during a record-breakingThanksgiving holiday weekend, defying industry expectations the crown would go to one of Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE:DIS -
news) new releases, either ``Unbreakable'' or ``102 Dalmatians.''
According to studio estimates issued Sunday, ``Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas'' (Universal) grossed about $73.8
million for the five days beginning Wednesday, taking its 10-day total to $137.4 million.
The Yuletide comedy stands a good chance of making it three in a row next weekend since there are no new wide releases
coming out. Universal, a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd.(Toronto:VO.TO - news), has topped the North American box office for 10
of the last 14 weekends with four films.
Disney, which had ruled the Thanksgiving box office for the previous six years, trailed this weekend with the No. 2 and No. 3
pictures. The supernatural thriller ``Unbreakable'' opened with $47.2 million for the five days, while the family comedy ``102
Dalmatians'' bowed with $26.8 million.
The top 12 films grossed a combined $236 million for the five days, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, a hefty 13.6
percent improvement on the record-breaking sum one year ago, when Disney's ``Toy Story 2'' set a new benchmark with an
$80.1 million debut.
Most industry observers had expected one of the new Disney movies to open in the top slot, but they apparently
underestimated the staying power of ``Grinch.''
Passes Century Mark
The film lost just five percent of its audience when comparing the Friday-to-Sunday portion of this weekend's total ($52.4
million) against the same three days a week earlier. It passed the century mark on its eighth day, Friday, becoming the fastest
non-summer release to do so, said Universal.
``Ron and I are just so beyond excited. We can't believe it,'' said ``Grinch'' producer Brian Grazer, referring to Ron Howard,
the film's director and his partner in Imagine Entertainment, which developed the film under the strict eye of Audrey Geisel, the
widow of Dr. Seuss, Theodor Geisel.
All but unrecognizable in heavy green makeup, Canadian funnyman Carrey plays the cave-dwelling curmudgeon originated in
Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's book and re-created in director Chuck Jones' animated 1966 Christmas TV special. Carrey's
previous collaboration with Imagine, ``Liar, Liar'' took 17 days to pass $100 million in early 1997. ``Charlie's Angels'' also
reached $100 million last Friday, its 22nd day of release.
Disney was philosophical about breaking its winning streak, noting that it still had the No. 1 adult movie with ''Unbreakable,''
the latest effort from M. Night Shyamalan, the writer/director of last year's smash ``The Sixth Sense.''
Adult movies usually avoid the Thanksgiving period, said Disney distribution president Chuck Viane, who was confident
''Unbreakable'' would hold up strongly next weekend when even more grown-ups would be freed up from Thanksgiving duties.
Fairly Favorable Reviews
The three day sum for ``Unbreakable'' -- $31.5 million -- compares with the $26.7 million bow of ``Sixth Sense'' in August
1999. The film ended up with $293.5 million domestically. Bruce Willis starred in both films, and was joined in ``Unbreakable''
by Samuel L. Jackson. Reviews were generally favorable.
``102 Dalmatians,'' starring Glenn Close, is a sequel to ``101 Dalmatians,'' which topped the 1996 Thanksgiving box office with
a five day sum of $45 million. Viane was not disappointed that the new film opened 40 percent lower, saying it was in line with
how sequels perform. Critics were mostly underwhelmed. The new film's three-day sum was $20.4 million vs. $33.5 million for
``101 Dalmatians.''
He predicted Disney would lead the Thanksgiving 2001 pack with ``Monsters Inc.,'' its latest collaboration with Pixar Inc.
(NasdaqNM:PIXR - news), the animation studio behind the ``Toy Story'' franchise.
Rounding out the top five were ``Rugrats in Paris: The Movie'' (Paramount) down two places to No. 4 in its second weekend
with $22.8 million; and ``Charlie's Angels'' (Columbia), also down two places with $14 million in its fourth round. ''Rugrats'' has
grossed $47.8 million after 10 days, and ``Angels'' $109.2 million after 24 days.
Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA - news) (NYSE:VIAb - news). Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony
Corp. (6758.T).
plot of Jeff Bridges movie "Fear" where he is one of a few survivors
of a plane crash and can't figure out why he was spared and others died.
The twist with this movie is that unlike Bridges, Willis has come out of the
accident without a scratch or broken bone on him. Is Willis the product of
divine luck or does he have some sort of supernatural power? Samuel
Jackson may have the answer. Willis seems to be indestructible, while
Jackson's Elijah Price is the polar opposite. Jackson has brittle
bones. He is very breakable, and when he learns of Willis' situation, he
may have found someone that could help his physical problems. Knowing all
of this does not ruin the movie since this is all established fairly early
on. How these questions and relationships are developed are where the
various twists and turns happen in the plot. However, from the first frame
of the film, the movie is much different than what the advertised plot is.
You see this is not a straight drama like "Sixth Sense" was last
year. There is a supernatural angle thrown in, but it is not ghosts or
some religious cult thing. No, this movie is closer to X-Men than Sixth
Sense. The opening of the movie begins with some crazy statistics about
comic book collectors. The audience I saw it with was like, "wtf?"
Elijah Price is a comic book art collector who thinks that the reason Dunn is
unbreakable is that he may just be a superhero sent here to save the
world. This is where the story wins or loses its audience. If you
are a fan of comic book stories and weird imagery, then this is the movie for
you. Unbreakable is pretty much the origin of a man becoming a 
superhero
whether he likes it or not. The first two thirds of the movie are played
pretty straight, but the last act and a half of U changes tone and becomes
something else. Throughout the movie Price keeps comparing real life to
comic books and it sounds ridiculous and causes most people to think what they
are watching is stupid. Jackson's delivery of these "mythology of the
comic" lines is so straight, you think you are watching Leslie Neilson in
"Airplane." Also, the pacing of the movie is very deliberate,
meaning somewhat slow. There are no real action sequences of note, with
even the train crash happening more off than on screen. However, the
mystery of why Willis is unbreakable and why Elijah's hair is so whack. It is
sort of like the Max Headroom Ronald Reagan cartoon that Doonesbury had in the
1980s. There is a subplot with Dunn having problems with his wife played
by Sean Penn's wife, Robin "I was a Princess Bride" Wright Penn.
Robin Wright was once known as a star of the future, but she decided to spend
more time as a wife and mother than an actress. The time off has not been
that good to her. She seems to be very tired and worn out throughout the
movie and is not all that pleasant to look at. Hopefully that was just
makeup for the character, but in my opinion, she did not come off that
well. The Dunn's son,
Joseph, played by Spencer Treat Clark, the kid from Gladiator, is very
good in the Haley Joel Osment type role. He see's his dad becoming
something amazing and is wide eyedness is fun to watch. However, there are
2 key scenes he has with Willis that are both compelling and poorly done at the
same time. The first big scene between father and son runs too long once
the audience gets the point and the other was dramatic, but made no sense in
terms of what you would do in real life. If you see the movie, you know
the parts I am talking about. I liked the movie and after it ended the way
it did, I enjoyed it more. It is a twist to a certain extent but not as
wild as Sixth Sense's was last year that was directed by Unbreakable's M. Knight
Shyamalan as well. If you pay attention, you will figure it out, but it
should not ruin the impact. This movie is not for everyone because the
comic book aspect of it could be considered silly to those expecting something a
bit more serious. But, if you accept the premise, then this is a very good
movie and if rumors are true may be part one of a trilogy. Final
Review: 3 1/2 stars out of 5; 7 1/2 out of 10; B; thumbs up. Look
for the director, Shyamalan, in a non-Hitchcockian Hitchcockian cameo meaning
that Shyman has dialgoue in his scene while Hitchcock never spoke in his blink
and you miss him appearances.
cartoon
was perfect and making it live action defeated its purpose whatever that might
be. The live action 101 Dalmations was very well received and because of
its success, Hollywood mentality had to step in and finance a sequel. I
don't think there were any unanswered questions left over from the first movie,
but if Glen Close is free to act goofy for 3 months of filming then why
not? The teaser trailer for 102 Dalmations is my favorite of the
year. It has all of those puppies falling from the sky with George
Clinton's "Atomic Dog" playing in the background and ends with Close's
evil laugh. But the reason this movie is not getting the attention is
because there was not point to it. This movie did not have to be
made. In fact the name of the movie is stupid. It's like calling a sequel
to the "Sixth Sense" something really dumb like "The Seventh
Sense." What they should have done is change the dog breed. How
about 101 Pit Bulls, or 101 Doberman Pinschers, or 101 St Bernards, or 101, or
101 Collies (rabid Lassie would rule), or to be totally outrageous, 101 Pussies
(cats). Now, the opening for 102 is pretty decent and more than most
movies make in a 5 day period of time so Disney should not panic. If word
of mouth stays decent, the movie could make $80 million to $100 million.
However, I don't see a 103 Dalmations coming out in the future.
performance in Terminator 2 because his cyborg was wussed out to make the T-1000
look more threatening. Eraser and End of Days are two Arnold movies that
his fans really dislike, but to me they are enjoyable little action movies even
thought the CGIed alligators in Eraser do suck. Arnold's new movie, The
Sixth Day, is a great film in terms of what you expect out of a Schwarzenegger
movie. My only problem with the movie is that it is PG-13 and that is
probably one of the main factors why it is not doing well at the box
office. When Arnold is in full R-rated violent mode, his movies doe
well. But whenever he is watered down like in Action Hero, Batman and
Robin, and this movie, people tend to avoid his work. First, let's look at
what this movie is about. Arnold plays a helicopter pilot in the near
future where the XFL is the hot thing and re-pets are the fad to help kids get
over the deaths of their dogs or cats. Repets are clones of dead
animals. Cloning of humans is illegal, but that has not stopped an evil
genius from doing it anyway. Arnold's character comes home one day and
sees himself celebrating his birthday, and I mean he sees himself. His
clone is blowing out the candles on his birthday cake and making love to his
wife in the back of the mini van. A definite wtf moment if there ever was
one. The problem is that the clone makers only want one on the planet at
one time or their whole plans go up in smoke so, one of those Arnold's has to
die. The action is pretty standard and tame because of the rating. A
person is 
run
over by a car, but you just see the driver react to the bump, but you don't see
the vehicle hit the body. A person is shot in the head, but you do not
really see the impact. A woman is cloned and comes out naked, but you only
get a NYPD Blue butt shot moment. Holograms are popular like the female
love interest of one character, but when she takes her clothes off, all you see
is her back. The government censors are ruining films. If you can
accept these edits to get a more family friendly rating then you can focus more
on the surprisingly strong plot about the idea of cloning human beings. The
ethics are debated throughout the movie and it is very interesting.
Cloning a human may be too weird for us to comprehend, but I personally would
like to see the cloning of organs to help people that need transplants and the
like. The movie also is paced very well. There are not real slow
parts with something going on all of the time. I had 2 big problems with
the movie though. For one thing, the ending scenes go on forever and seem
to never end. A big laser gun shoot out goes on that looks a bit like an
old Academy Awards musical number back in 1980 when they were hyping the special
effects of the James Bond movie Moonraker. I don't think the writers knew
how to make a good ending. However, this movie has the most disturbing
thing I have ever seen. There is nothing as sinisiter
and frightening as the Sim-pal doll. This thing is a life like doll that
Arnold's daughter wants to get and it looks like a possessed doll you might see
in a Twilight Zone or a Chucky movie. The eyes are too wide, the face is
too wrinkly, and animatonics so jerky that you can't tell if you are looking at
a robot or an actor playing the doll. In the theater everyone in the
audience was screaming at the horror of this thing. I recommend you see
the movie just to see this thing. It is creepy as hell. Sixth Day
deserves to make over a $100 million instead of the $50 million it is headed
for. Arnold needs to go back to making more adult movies and stop playing
to a family audience that is not as loyal to him as his hardcore fans are.
This is a good movie, and I can't wait to get it on DVD. Final
Review: 3 stars out of 5; 7 out of 10; B; thumbs up. If you see it,
watch out for the Sim-pal nightmares you are bound to have.