‘Hook’ Soars to $100 Million

“Hook,” the movie that was ignored by critics’ awards, chastised by some for an extravagant $60-million-plus budget, and opened Dec. 11 to less-than-boffo box office, has sailed beyond the $100-million mark at the U.S. box office, according to its distributors.

The magical box-office number wasn’t achieved as rapidly as last summer’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” which sold $100 million in tickets in just over two weeks. But “Hook” got there faster than any other picture since--in six weeks.

“Hook” is now positioned to become the Christmas season’s box-office champ, said the film’s distributor, TriStar Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. It will eventually pass Paramount Pictures’ “The Addams Family,” which had grossed about $104 million as of Friday, after nine weeks of release. Walt Disney Pictures’ “Beauty and the Beast,” which has been in the market for 11 weeks, is expected to cross the $100-million mark in the next week.

When “Hook” opened, expectations were high among movie theater exhibitors, based on director Steven Spielberg’s reputation for blockbusters, and the star cast, including Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, Robin Williams as Peter Pan and Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell.

But the actual opening in the middle of a week, while schools were still in session prior to the peak Christmas-movie going season, was soft.

TriStar Chairman Mike Medavoy insisted that the movie would ultimately prove itself a commercial hit, not only in the United States but in the international and home video markets where Sony has big expectations.

Some sources have estimated that the film will begin making money for the studio after it crosses $120 million in grosses--a point at which the initial gross profit-participation points taken by the major names involved are satisfied.