No. 1 ‘Analyze This’ Still Hitting Its Target

The mob-themed comedy “Analyze This” held off the challenge of a number of new releases to remain No. 1 at the box office over the weekend and looks to be a major hit for Warner Bros.

“It dropped a mere 15% from its debut a week earlier, which is amazing,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking firm Exhibitors Relations Co. Inc. “Word of mouth is fantastic about this film.”

Dergarabedian said that teen horror films such as “The Rage: Carrie 2” usually open strong but quickly fall off. He also noted that all of the weekend’s new films were “pretty soft” in terms of box-office performance.

“On paper, it looks like there was a wide diversity of films tailored to different audiences, but maybe some of these titles cannibalized each other,” he said of the new films that opened last week. “It’s hard for audiences to digest this many films.”

Weekend Box Office

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Three-day gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “Analyze This” $15.6 2,537 2 (Warner Bros.) $39.9 $6,136 2. “The Rage: Carrie 2” $7.1 2,286 1 (MGM) $7.1 $3,091 3. “Cruel Intentions” $7.0 2,312 2 (Sony/Columbia) $23.4 $3,031 4. “The Corruptor” $5.8 1,804 1 (New Line) $5.8 $3,196 5. “Baby Geniuses” $5.6 1,689 1 (Sony/TriStar) $5.6 $3,324 6. “The Deep End of the Ocean” $5.56 1,907 1 (Sony/Columbia) $5.56 $2,915 7. “Wing Commander” $5.1 2,019 1 (Fox) $5.1 $2,533 8. “The Other Sister” $3.8 1,863 3 (Disney/Touchstone) $19.9 $2,061 9. “8MM” $3.5 2,241 3 (Sony/Columbia) $31.0 $1,571 10. “October Sky” $3.0 1,583 4 (Universal) $20.8 $1,900 * “The Harmonists” $25,141 5 1 (Miramax) $25,141 $5,028

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SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.