‘Dolittle’ Shows Its Growl With $29 Million

Twentieth Century Fox is breathing a sigh of relief that history didn’t repeat itself with “Dr. Dolittle,” the 1967 comedy that the studio remade with Eddie Murphy. The new film this weekend overcame largely downbeat notices to reap an estimated $29 million on 2,777 screens.

And while first-weekend grosses for Universal’s “Out of Sight,” starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, may not have lived up to its title, the glowingly reviewed Steven Soderbergh romantic drama based on Elmore Leonard’s novel managed to get into the big leagues, reaping an estimated three-day total of $12.9 million in 2,106 theaters.

Meanwhile, at age 59 and still going strong is “Gone With the Wind,” the mother of all screen epics, which breezed in with an estimated $1.2 million on 214 screens in its latest re-release. The per-screen average of $5,607 is good considering the almost four-hour film plays only two shows a day. To date, the 1939 Oscar winner’s sum total is about $193 million, which doesn’t sound like a lot compared to “Titanic” or other contemporary blockbusters. But don’t let that figure fool you; “Gone With the Wind” has sold more tickets than any other film in history.

Summer business heated up this weekend with the top dozen films taking in an estimated $104 million, according to Exhibitor Relations Inc., the industry tracking company. That’s about 11% better than the comparable weekend last year.

The first time Fox made a film called “Dr. Dolittle,” the disappointing musical comedy starring Rex Harrison came close to bankrupting the company. This time they removed the music, updated the story and added a special ingredient: Murphy.

Although Murphy refused to make appearances to promote “Dolittle,” his fans remained loyal, delivering a per-screen average of more than $10,000. That is comparable to Murphy’s enormously successful “The Nutty Professor,” which opened in 600 fewer theaters and did better than $25 million.

Fox Film Group Chairman Tom Sherak says the new “Dolittle” has all the ingredients of a tenacious hit because it “plays from the middle out,” his lingo for a movie that does even better in the heartland (small towns, suburbia) than in cities where Murphy’s core fan base presumably resides.

One of the film’s producers, Joseph Singer, adds that the film jumped 20% from Friday to Saturday, an indicator that it makes for good date-night viewing (“Out of Sight” had a similar Friday-to-Saturday bump). Being the only major comedy in the marketplace right now, and also sporting a PG-13 rating that makes it likely family fare, are other points in “Dolittle’s” favor.

And don’t forget that the kids are out of school now. Not only did they come out in droves to help “Dolittle’s” first weekend, but they helped keep “Mulan,” which features Murphy’s voice as a wise-cracking dragon, in a strong position. “Mulan” held better in first-to-second weekend business than almost any other Disney-animated film, or any studio’s film this summer for that matter, according to studio distribution chief Phil Barlow. The company’s animated summer entry opened in second place last weekend and didn’t budge this weekend. With a modest 24% drop, “Mulan” took in an estimated $17.3 million on 2,921 screens for a 10-day total of $54.5 million. And midweek business has been amazing--at least $3.5 million per day.

But look out, Eddie and “Mulan,” there’s an asteroid headed this way with your names on it. “Armageddon” breaks loose on Wednesday and all the top films in theaters are hoping it doesn’t pulverize them. Except for “Mulan,” practically every strong debut this summer has taken a major hit each succeeding weekend. And the competition will only get tougher over the next few weeks. Last week’s $30-million-grossing No. 1 film, “The X-Files,” took a drubbing (dropping 55%) from “Dolittle” (which took the youngsters) and “Out of Sight” (which stole some adults). Still, with an estimated $13.5 million in its second weekend and healthy midweek business from its supremely loyal fan base, “The X-Files” has already marked up $55.1 million and is on track to do a “Star Trek” kind of business.

Jim Carrey’s well-reviewed “The Truman Show” ran fifth in its fourth weekend, with a still noteworthy $8.6 million on 2,911 screens. While weekend numbers represent another 31% drop from last weekend, the film crosses $100 million today, so who’s complaining?

“Six Days, Seven Nights,” starring Harrison Ford, is mimicking Michael Douglas’ “A Perfect Murder’s” attendance pattern, dropping to $7.6 million on 2,606 screens for $47.2 million to date. Meanwhile “Perfect” was off only 26% to an expected $5.4 million and just over $55 million so far.

“Hope Floats,” starring Sandra Bullock, is still a contender with $2.25 million likely this weekend and almost $49 million to date. Right behind it is Sony’s teen comedy “Can’t Hardly Wait,” which is fading fast with $2.2 million in its third weekend and $21.2 million so far.

Robert Redford’s “The Horse Whisperer” remained in 10th place with $1.9 million and about $67 million to date after almost two months.

But the summer’s first two disaster movies are both feeling woozy. “Deep Impact” fell out of the Top 10 to 11th place with $1.6 million over the weekend, though it now has a healthy $136 million in the bank. And “Godzilla,” now in 12th place, took in only $1.5 million over the weekend, for a disappointing $132.4 million to date.

Finally, Miramax opened the highly praised Native American drama “Smoke Signals” at five theaters over the weekend to an acceptable $42,000.