The ‘Message’ Seems to Be: Costner Still Brings ‘Em In

Kevin Costner played cupid for Valentine’s Day as women and their romantically inclined mates were lured to “Message in a Bottle.” The romantic drama scored a box-office bull’s-eye over the four-day holiday weekend, grossing an estimated $19.1 million in 2,538 theaters. That’s the best start for any Costner film after “Waterworld.”

Two other demographics were wooed over the weekend to less salubrious results. The kiddie-skewing “My Favorite Martian” tried to capitalize on its ‘60s television antecedent and the dearth of new family-oriented fare in theaters. “Martian” posted a good, but not out-of-this-world debut of about $11.1 million in its first four days on 2,275 screens. Good enough for third place over the weekend, it was Disney’s biggest February debut and 75% of “Martian’s” business came from families--young kids and their parents.

The teen-oriented “Blast From the Past” didn’t get much of a liftoff, rising no higher than fifth place with approximately $9.7 million in 2,542 theaters.

Holding very well were “Payback” and “She’s All That.” Mel Gibson’s violence fest was a close second to “Message,” proving that crime sometimes pays handsomely. The second-week drop-off was mitigated by the additional holiday business. The film was up an estimated $18.4 million in 2,751 theaters, giving “Payback” an 11-day take of almost $45 million.

The teen romantic comedy “She’s All That,” yet another wrinkle on Pygmalion, is turning into a real Cinderella story at the box office, finishing fourth with an additional $10.2 million in its third weekend in 2,654 theaters and a grand total of almost $43 million so far. With the current glut of teenager-targeted films (and more to come over the next several weeks), only the strongest will survive--as “Blast From the Past” and last week’s dismal “Simply Irresistible” prove. “She’s All That” could prove to be the brawniest of them all.

Comparably speaking, this Presidents Day weekend had enough variety to attract a fairly diverse audience, with four films topping $10 million. And totals for the top dozen movies, while again behind last year’s pace, were strong enough to bring in almost $98 million over the four days, according to estimates from the tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. That’s about 15% behind the same weekend in 1998.

Oscar attention brought a box-office kick in the pants for most nominees, especially “Shakespeare in Love.” Bolstered by 13 nominations including best picture, the period romantic comedy went wide on 1,956 screens, and leaped to about $9.5 million for the four-day holiday, bringing its grand total to $47 million so far.

Equally dramatic was the rise for “Life Is Beautiful,” which took in $3 million over the weekend, more than three times the previous weekend’s total. With its seven nominations, “Life” expanded to 644 theaters, phenomenal for a foreign language film. With almost $22 million collected to date, “Life” is about to surpass “The Postman” as the highest-grossing foreign language film ever. The Iranian foreign film nominee, “Children of Heaven,” got a real boost in its eight-theater run, doubling last weekend’s gross to $62,000 and $176,000 to date.

The much honored “Saving Private Ryan” has already added almost $10 million since its return to wide release, $4 million of that over the past weekend on 1,140 screens, bringing it to within a hair’s breadth of the $200-million plateau.

But the Oscar limelight didn’t do much for “The Thin Red Line,” though it managed to hold even with last weekend, grossing almost $2 million in 1,306 theaters for $33 million to date.

Two Oscar nominations also helped “A Simple Plan” maintain a presence with $1.25 million in 675 theaters for a total to date of $14 million.

Though Bill Murray didn’t get an anticipated supporting actor nod, Disney’s other new comedy, “Rushmore,” managed to score. Expanding to 563 theaters, it mounted an estimated $3.7 million for a two-week total of just over $6 million. “Rushmore” will add another 150 theaters this Friday as it slowly spreads across the land.

Among the new specialized films, the only one of note was Julia Sweeney’s laugh-a-lot and cry-a-little one-woman show, “God Said ‘Ha!,’ ” which grossed $12,000 on two screens and will roll out to about 20 cities over the next few weeks.

Rounding out the Top 10 were “Patch Adams” and “Varsity Blues,” the former adding another $3.6 million to its already bounteous gross and is now approaching $130 million. “Patch” should finish up just around $140 million. With a fifth-weekend gross estimated at $3.3 million, “Varsity” should reach $50 million next weekend.