Sandler Fathers a Big Hit in ‘Big Daddy’

In a summer of one-week wonders, this week’s top man is Adam Sandler, whose fuzzy, crude comedy “Big Daddy” opened with a huge take of $41.2 million on 3,027 screens, an even bigger start than “The Waterboy’s” $39.4 million last year.

“Big Daddy” penetrated all demographics, broadening Sandler’s already sizable audience, according to Sony Pictures distribution head Jeff Blake. “You have to hand it to Adam,” Blake said. “He’s worked at expanding his audience younger and older, and straight down the middle, male and female.” As a result, “Big Daddy” is playing equally well in big cities, suburbs and rural areas, with not a single weak spot, which bodes well for its longevity during the heated summer crush.

“Big Daddy’s” business took some of the shine off the previous weekend’s stars, “Tarzan” and “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.” Both films fell from their dizzying $30-million-plus totals for last weekend as audiences continued to demonstrate a herd mentality, flocking to a particular film one weekend only to move on to a new champion the next.

Which is not to say that “Tarzan” fell out of the tree. With about $77 million after just 10 days, “Tarzan” is performing at a level better than any recent Disney animated title. Its 31% drop--to $23.5 million on 3,049 screens--was exactly the same as the second-weekend falloff in 1994 for “The Lion King,” which is good company to be in.

“Austin Powers” looks to land at $150 million after only 17 days in theaters, making it New Line Cinema’s biggest-grossing film ever (beating “Rush Hour’s” $144 million) and the top-grossing non-studio film. In a record 3,314 theaters, “Austin” again lost more than 40% of the previous weekend’s business, but pulled in a still hearty $18.5 million. At this rate, “Austin” will have made most of its money in the first month of release, which should still be good enough to make it the second film this summer to reach $200 million. With a price tag of only $33 million (and a hefty back-end deal for star Mike Myers), there’s not a complaint to be heard, baby.

“Big Daddy” also grabbed away part of the female audience from “The General’s Daughter,” which dropped 30% percent to a $15.6-million estimate on 2,858 screens in its second weekend, but it has already collected $47.2 million in its first 10 days.

“Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace” reached another plateau this weekend, surpassing the $350-million mark in its 40th day of release. While it’s not expected to achieve “Titanic’s” $600-million final total, the George Lucas spectacular got to $350 million 18 days ahead of “Titanic” and should surpass “Jurassic Park’s” $357 million sometime during the coming week. “Phantom Menace” will then be breathing the rarefied air of such all-time champions as “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” and the original “Star Wars.”

No matter what major film opens each weekend, “Phantom Menace’s” drop-off continues to be less than average (only 23% this weekend). Weekend No. 6 should bring in an estimated $14.6 million, attesting in part to the importance of having a hold on the best movie theaters in the country. And “Phantom Menace” is still contracted for several more weeks on some of those 3,126 screens.

Again the box office was top-heavy. The five leaders accounted for more than $113 million of the top 12 movies’ estimated $125 million gross (which was just ahead of last week’s $124-million total and 23% better than the $102 million recorded for the same weekend last year, according to Exhibitor Relations). With three movies--”Wild Wild West,” “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” and “Summer of Sam”--slated to arrive for the Fourth of July weekend, the 1999 summer season is developing into a potential record-breaker.

Now in sixth place, “Notting Hill,” starring Julia Roberts, took in an additional $5.1 million on 2,559 screens, maintaining a steady pace as it nears $90 million.

“The Mummy” is running out of steam after eight weeks, with $2.1 million in 1,826 screens. But it has already topped $145 million since its splashy May 7 early-bird summer debut, outpacing last year’s seasonal jump-starter, “Deep Impact.”

In eighth place, “Instinct” crossed the $30-million mark in its fourth weekend with an additional $1.9 million in 1,814 theaters but is clearly on the way out.

And to prove that there’s still room for alternative fare, even in summer, the film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband” jumped into the top 10 with a projected $1.1 million (now on 122 screens) and a total to date of $1.4 million.

Rounding out the top 10 was “The Matrix,” which after 13 weeks still managed to pull in more than $1 million on 1,139 screens to bring its total to almost $166 million.

Of the new limited releases, “My Son the Fanatic” debuted to $37,000 on five screens in New York and Los Angeles.