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Daily News
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Blade II Chops Up Box Office
Top two films gross more than $30 million as the North American box office leaps 79% over the same weekend a year ago.
Monday, March 25, 2002
By Spencer Garvey
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Wesley Snipes' return in the sequel to 1998's hit film Blade came in
on top of the North American box office this past weekend. Blade II,
directed by Guillermo del Toro earned an estimated $33.1 million. The opening
set a record for Snipes, who stars in the movie as a half man-half vampire.
As well, after last weekend's amazing debut run of Twentieth Century Fox's animated
Ice Age, which skated to the tune of $46.3 million, Blade II has
the second biggest March opening in history.
Executives at New Line, the studio releasing the film, could not have been
happier. "Wesley delivered a terrific picture. we're very pleased with
the weekend results," the president of domestic distribution, David Tuckerman,
told the Hollywood Reporter. "Tracking indicated it would open north
of $30 million. There was a hunger for this film based on the film and video
success of the first picture. The public decides what they want to see, and
the fans loved this picture."
With Ice Age continuing to perform well, pulling in an additional $31
million to finish in second, the top two films in the nation both earned over
$30 million. In its first ten days of release, the family oriented film has
already made $88.3 million. Not bad since with Blade II and the release
of the anniversary addition of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial on over 3,000
screens, Ice Age faced some serious competition, especially since both films
target the same audience demographics.
The re-release of Steven Spielberg's science fiction classic came in third
place with roughly $15.1 million. This makes it the fourth biggest opening for
a reissue, with the Star Wars trilogy in front of it.
"When you look at the weekend numbers on previous reissues, other than
the Star Wars trilogy, this is the largest opening on record," Universal
Pictures distribution president Nikki Rocco said in an interview with the Reporter.
"There was a lot of competition for the family audience this weekend, but
we are pleased with the results. We're proud to celebrate E.T.'s 20th
anniversary; that's what this reissue was all about."
Buena Vista's teen oriented comedy, Sorority Boys, was the only new
film to open this past weekend, rushing to $4.2 for a disappointing ninth place
finish. Harland Williams, Barry Watson and Michael Rosenbaum star in the film
about three college students who must join a sorority as women in order to be
accepted into a fraternity.
Showtime fell to number four, earning $8.2 million, off 45% from it's
opening numbers. Starring Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro, the comedy has made
$26.9 million since opening.
Meanwhile last week's second place film, Screen Gems' Resident Evil,
dropped an astounding 63%, as horror fans flocked to Blade II. Earning
$6.6 million to come in fifth place, the film starring Milla Jovovich has a
cumulative gross of $28.8 million.
The Mel Gibson Vietnam War picture, We Were Soldiers earned an additional
$5.8 million over the last three days to put it in sixth place. Dreamworks adaptation
of H.G. Wells Time Machine finished in seventh with $5.2 million.
Getting a bump from the Academy Awards, which were held on Sunday night were
some of the films nominated for Best Picture Oscars. Among them was A Beautiful
Mind. Coming in eighth over the weekend with about $4.3 million. To date
the Ron Howard biopic about a Nobel Prize winning mathematician has calculated
$154.9 million.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring has made $297.6 million
since it's release in mid-December, while over the past three days it brought
in another $2.5 million, a 17% increase over last weekend.
| Robert Altman's Gosford Park managed another $1.6 million, even though
it was on 13 fewer screens, bringing its sum to $37.8 million. The Miramax indie
hit In The Bedroom had 29 playdates cancel, yet still earned $1.35 million
and $34.3 million to date.
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Miramax also had the Project Greenlight film Stolen Summer bow
in 13 theaters where it took in $62,000. Best Foreign Language Academy Award
nominee Son Of The Bride arrived on six screens from Sony Pictures Classics.
Jose Campanella helmed the dramedy, which invited $33,119 in business this weekend.
Kissing Jessica Stein opened on an additional 40 screens and found $548,000
waiting for it after the three-day period. The Fox Searchlight picture is now
in 66 theaters and has a cumulative gross of $1.1 million the same overall gross
as Alfonso Cuaron's Spanish language Y Tu Mama Tambian which made $460,895
over the weekend.
The estimated gross of the top 12 films is $121 million, up 79% from the same
time frame last year. This year, the national box office is up by 9% overall,
having already taken in $1.74 billion.
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