‘Psycho’s’ Stagger at Gate Pegged to Lack of Teens, Older Audience

It’s been a year to expect the unexpected.

Just as few in Hollywood predicted that such films as “There’s Something About Mary,” “The Waterboy” and “The Rugrats Movie” would become instant mega-hits, many had high expectations for “Godzilla,” “BASEketball” and “Babe: Pig in the City.”

This week’s victim of heightened expectations is “Psycho,” director Gus Van Sant’s remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic thriller. The film stumbled out of the starting gate, grossing $10 million at the box office for beleaguered Universal Studios.

What happened? Analysts say “Psycho” needed a bigger response both from teens who normally rush to see horror films and from older audiences who were reminded of Hitchcock’s thriller.

“I think that Anne Heche and Vince Vaughn, while they are great, didn’t appeal to the ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ crowd,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking firm Exhibitors Relations Co. Inc. “I think younger audiences go for younger personalities,” he said.

As for older audiences, Dergarabedian said they might have been turned off at the thought of a studio remaking a Hitchcock classic.

“Psycho” carried additional baggage; for weeks, Universal has been under a spotlight because of turmoil in the executive suites. The studio needed a strong showing from “Psycho” and three other year-ending films to bring the studio out of its box-office doldrums. So far “Psycho,” the “Babe” sequel and “Meet Joe Black” have been box-office disappointments.