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Summary:
The smoke has cleared in the tight race for the top spot at the box office this weekend,
and final reports are in. The winner? Fight Club
by $800,000, with just over $1.3 million separating first and third.
Double Jeopardy saw its consecutive box office crowns
end at 3, falling short of The Sixth Sense's
five in a row (the first film since Titanic to finish number one for 5 straight weeks).
But the fact that Double Jeopardy fell just over 24% this weekend, despite
the entrance of two big debuts, is a testament
to how strong word of mouth is for the film. It has become a gigantic success
in the adult-female demographic, and will easily break the $100 million mark within the next three weekends.
The Rob Reiner romance The Story of Us, about a couple struggling through marriage,
finished third. But despite its cold welcoming from critics, it has reportedly been getting
good responses from audiences in its opening weekend. Sneaking in at number one this weekend was the
opening of Brad Pitt's controversial $65 million budgeted Fight Club, which failed
to have the big debut Fox had hoped for, and some industry insiders had predicted. The film, which has been
praised by critics and audiences alike, had a large chunk of its core audience drawn away by the Baseball
Championship series (although strangely, it performed much better than studio estimates on Sunday),
and also scared away many with rumors of its ultra-violent subject-matter.
Three Kings dropped a notch to fourth,
falling the second most of any film in the top 10, demonstrably affected by Fight Club's entrance
into the market. DreamWorks' $15 million budgeted Oscar-gem American Beauty
continues to generate great buzz, and should wind up with close to $70 million. Not as successful was
Harrison Ford's romance-drama Random Hearts,
falling a horrific 55% in its second weekend of release. Poor reception by critics and lack of
solid word of mouth have really damaged long-term financial hopes for it at the box office.
Right on pace with SNL's last film release, A Night at the Roxbury, Molly Shannon's Superstar
fell a decent 36% from its opening weekend, and could wind up with $30 million at the end of its run
(Roxbury had a cumulative gross of $17.8 million by its second weekend, and finished with
$30.3 million last Fall). The Sixth Sense once again finished with the lowest drop in the top 10,
and has now become the 14th highest grossing film on the All-Time List, surpassing 1997's Men in Black.
Sneaking into the top 10 was Casper Van Dien's
relatively unheard of The Omega Code, which strangely finished with the highest per
screen average of the pack despite being released by an independent distributor.
It has apparently been advertised on many Christian stations across the country.
As for the box office, two big openings weren't enough as the weekend was down 4% from last year's comparable frame
when Practical Magic was tops with $13.1 million.
-Stephen Wong
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