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Daily News
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Spy Kids Surprise
The third installment of Dimension Films' Spy Kids franchise suprises
the industry by taking the top spot at the box office this weekend.
Monday, July 28, 2003
By Liz Jeffries
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Dimension Films pulled off a suprise victory this weekend as their latest installment
of the Spy Kids franchise, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, overtook all
other new wide releases this weekend to capture the top spot at the box office.
The pint-sized action-adventure flick checked into the marketplace with $32.5
million in receipts, easily out-debuting the first two films in the franchise,
which opened to $26.5 million and $16.7 million, respectively.
The numbers generated from the first two openings of the Spy Kids films
seemed to indicate that interest was slipping. But with writer-director Robert
Rodriguez adding 3-D effects to the film, combined with it being one of the
lone teen-oriented pics of the weekend, it helped catapult the film past the
other two new wide releases: Paramount's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle
of Life and Universal's Seabiscuit.
Execs were obviously pleased with the Spy Kids performance this weekend.
"There's a surprise every summer that no one predicts," Dimension co-president
Bob Weinstein told Daily Variety. "This was it this summer."
Coming into the weekend, Paramount had high hopes for its second installment
of the Lara Croft franchise, which stars Oscar winner Angelina Jolie.
The first Lara Croft film grossed $47.7 million in its opening weekend,
easily overshadowing the $21.8 million brought in by Cradle of Life,
which landed in a disappointing fourth place for the weekend.
The Paramount execs did not show as much enthusiasm as Dimension's this weekend.
"It came relatively close to where the research indicated, and it definitely
plays better than the first one, so we expect a high lifetime multiple of the
opening weekend," Wayne Lewellen, president of distribution for Paramount, told
The Hollywood Reporter.
Seabiscuit fared a little bit better, even though it debuted in fifth
place. Based on a true story, the Tobey Maguire/Jeff Bridges starrer about an
underdog horse, his jockey and his owner raced to a $21.5 million crown from
only 1,989 screens. Playing on 1,200 fewer screens than any other of the wide
releases, the film managed an estimated $10,809 per theater.
Buena Vista's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
continued to sail high in its third weekend pirating another $22.4 million,
off a mild 34% from last weekend. Johnny Depp keeps drawing in the audiences
as the film clung onto second place and scooched past Bad Boys II on
the charts. To date, the film has grossed $176.1 million.
Bad Boys II still performed strongly, however, with $22 million from
the weekend, good enough for a third place finish. The Will Smith-Martin Lawrence
actioner, directed by Gore Verbinski, dropped a harsh 53% from its premiere
but has managed to score $88.5 million after 10 days in release.
Warner Bros.' sequel of the summer, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,
pulled into sixth place with $5.0 million from the weekend, with 20th Century
Fox's The League of Extraordinary chasing T3 with $4.9 million
from the weekend. The British spy comedy Johnny English, starring Rowan
Atkinson, also put up a good fight as it attracted $4.3 million from the weekend
Disney/Pixar's animated Finding Nemo continued to swim its way toward
history, as it added another $4.0 million from the weekend bringing its cume
up to a stellar $312.6 million. Should Nemo pick up another $200,000,
it would surpass the original release numbers from The Lion King, which
now stands as the highest-grossing animated film in history. With an IMAX re-release,
Lion King's domestic numbers hold strong at $328.6 million.
With $2.7 million from the weekend, Reese Witherspoon's Legally Blonde 2:
Red, White & Blonde rounded out the top ten finishers.
The limited release arena displayed some promising openings as well this weekend,
led by IFC Films' comedy Camp, from director Todd Graff. The film, which
debuted in three Los Angeles and New York locations, picked up $53,579 for a
strong $17,860 per theater average.
| Sony Classics also debuted its music-driven Masked and Anonymous, which
has Bob Dylan leading an ensemble cast. The film took in $32,167 from four locations,
landing a solid $8,042 per theater average. Since its Thursday release, the
drama has grossed an estimated $38,504.
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Buffalo Soldiers, from Miramax, opened on six screens and brought in
$29,000 posting an average $4,833 per theater, while the studio's Dirty Pretty
Things showed up with $92,000 from eight venues for a more promising $11,500
per theater score. Lions Gate saw Mondays in the Sun bow in seven locales
to the tune of $22,000 for a lacking $3,143 per theater average.
Should the estimates for the weekend hold true, it would be the first time
in history that five films have cracked the $20 million mark; a stat that helps
push the national box office for the week of July 24th past the comparable frame
from last year by 25%. The year-to-date cume has now creeped to within 3% of
last year's record pace, but the admissions numbers are still trailing last
year's pace by 9%.
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