‘Analyze This’ Rubs Out Rivals to Take Over Top Spot

The weekend’s two national debuts, the mob comedy “Analyze This” and the teen drama “Cruel Intentions,” each successfully homed in on a primary audience and walked away with the top two spots in the box-office derby. But it was the older moviegoers who won the day.

Capitalizing on actor Robert De Niro’s past portrayals of mobsters by turning it on its comic head, Warner Bros. marketing chief Brad Ball effectively reached the core demographic of adults over 25, as well as some younger males, for an estimated $17.7-million start on 2,516 screens. Having beat “Cruel Intentions” out of the gate, Ball believes “Analyze This” can stay around for a while and gradually play younger, broadening the film’s upside potential. Generally good reviews further strengthened the film’s position, giving the studio its third No. 1 debut in the past four months.

Over at Sony, senior marketing executive Bob Levin courted the WB/Fox/MTV young adult viewership to sell the sexually provocative, R-rated “Cruel Intentions,” a latter-day “Dangerous Liaisons.” The modestly budgeted youth-appeal movie debuted to $13.2 million on 2,312 screens, a good start if not up to the two recent breakout teen films, “Varsity Blues” and “She’s All That.”

A drop from Friday to Saturday, however, doesn’t portend well for the movie’s long-term chances, especially with new teen fare arriving every week. Next weekend alone will bring “The Rage: Carrie II” and “Wing Commander” with Freddie Prinze Jr.

This coming weekend’s other promising arrival is the British crime comedy “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” which blew into New York and Los Angeles to good notices and $144,784, a strong $18,000 per theater.

The two top films helped keep weekend grosses at just about 9% behind last year’s record-setting levels. The top 12 films in theaters grossed an estimated $68 million, according to Exhibitor Relations Inc.

Last week’s No. 1 film stumbled badly over the weekend as word of mouth spread. “8MM” is already weakening, with a 51% decline to an estimated $7 million on 2,370 screens and a 10-day total of $25.3 million. Last weekend’s other major arrival, “The Other Sister,” remained fairly stable with about $5.6 million, but it took more than 500 additional theaters to keep it there (“Sister” is on 1,846 screens). The two-week gross is an OK $14.2 million.

“Analyze This” seems to have eroded support for “Payback” and “Message in a Bottle,” both of which slipped 40% or more. “Payback,” which grossed $4.1 million in 2,855 theaters, has now been paid back $72 million. “Message” also has gotten its point across: With an additional $3.4 million predicted for the weekend in 2,489 theaters, the romantic drama has delivered $46 million.

“October Sky” obviously has been generating strong word of mouth as a film for the whole family, and its third weekend landed at about $3.7 million, for a total to date of almost $17 million. Its only competitor is “My Favorite Martian,” which rounded out its first month with $3.6 million in 2,309 theaters and a total of about $30 million.

“Shakespeare in Love” was marking time until Oscar night with approximately $3.4 million over the past weekend in 1,721 theaters and almost $65 million so far. “She’s All That” managed to make it to the prom despite the arrival of “Cruel Intentions,” hanging on to $2.6 million for $57 million so far, making it the teen film to beat.

Just out of the top 10 was “Life Is Beautiful,” the only movie in theaters that actually did better this week than last, taking in about $1.8 million on only 672 screens. The record-breaking Italian tragi-comedy has now topped $30 million.