‘Bone Collector’ Gathers Fans Hungry for Thrillers

In what proved to be a rather mediocre first weekend of November, “The Bone Collector” cashed in on the continuing audience appetite for thrillers, while “The Bachelor” and “The Insider” failed to ignite.

“The Bone Collector,” starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, amassed an estimated $17.2 million in 2,587 theaters, continuing the skein of thrillers that have lured audiences since the debut of “The General’s Daughter” in June and followed by “The Blair Witch Project,” “The Haunting,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Double Jeopardy” and “House on Haunted Hill.”

The weekend’s other two national releases, the romantic comedy “The Bachelor” starring Chris O’Donnell and Renee Zellweger, and Michael Mann’s docudrama, “The Insider,” had a tougher time. “Bachelor” placed second, but, in about the same number of theaters as “The Bone Collector,” it sold less than half as many tickets. “Bachelor” was on 2,522 screens for a total ambitiously estimated at $8 million--perhaps an acceptable start, though its Saturday-date night numbers were not fantastic.

“The Insider,” starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe, came in fourth after receiving some of the year’s best reviews. Disney was hoping for a strong launch to keep the film playing through the holidays and into Oscar season early next year. The high estimate of $7 million in 1,809 theaters, however, shows “The Insider” has its work cut out. The studio’s senior distribution executive, Chuck Viane, says the film was selling out in parts of Los Angeles and other major cities (90% of the audience was 25 and older), but not playing well in the suburbs. “The Insider” could pick up steam as the holiday season approaches and its older target demographic talks up the film. If that doesn’t happen, it could hurt its financial outcome and viability as an Oscar contender.

Last week’s box office leader, “House on Haunted Hill,” wedged itself into third place among the new arrivals, taking a predictable 51% drop for the post-Halloween weekend. The B-movie remake of a B-movie cult film took in approximately $7.8 million in 2,710 theaters for a hair-raising 10-day total of $28 million, though the film’s best days are behind it.

“Being John Malkovich” could be the winner of the “And now for something completely different” sweepstakes this fall. Spike Jonze’s oddball comedy starring John Cusack, Cameron Diaz and the eponymous Malkovich, seems to be clicking. After a sensational debut on 25 screens last weekend, “Malkovich” expanded to 175 theaters and grossed an estimated $1.9 million (almost $11,000 a theater), beating out such national releases as “Three Kings,” which is on more than 1,400 screens. The 10-day total of $2.9 million in such limited release portends well for the unique film, which will expand Friday to about 650 screens.

After a strong October, which contributed $450 million (up 6% from last year) to the year’s $6 billion in ticket sales to date, the first weekend in November was unusually soft. As the film industry heads for its first $7-billion-plus year, totals for the top 12 movies this weekend didn’t contribute as much as expected, only about $65 million, according to Exhibitor Relations, a sharp 30% below last year when “The Waterboy” made cash registers ring.

The current fall season has been illuminated by “Double Jeopardy,” which passed $100 million on Friday and accumulated $4.5 million over its seventh weekend on 2,722 screens for a total of $104 million. “The Best Man” was still winning with a third weekend estimate of $4.3 million on only 1,290 screens and a 17 day-total of about $24 million. Though it should end up doing as well as “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” (over $30 million), industry insiders are still chagrined that the affable romantic comedy has not been able to reach a more diverse audience--about 85% of admissions are African American. It’s one of the stubbornly entrenched economic realities faced by Hollywood when it attempts to expand its admittedly limited palate.

One of the surprises of the fall season, “American Beauty,” continues to perform well, declining only 13% in its eighth weekend to $3.3 million on 1,553 screens. Interestingly, “Beauty” has never topped $10 million on a single weekend, yet has racked up an impressive total of close to $60 million so far and could surpass “Blue Streak” as the fall’s second-highest grossing film.

And speaking of long legs, the blockbuster “The Sixth Sense” actually saw increased attendance over the weekend, even as it lost theaters, meaning the handful of people who haven’t seen it yet were making sure to catch the suspense thriller rather than some of the newer films. After an amazing 14 weeks in theaters, “Sense” brought in about $3.2 million on 1,802 screens for a total near $265 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were the disappointing “Music of the Heart” and “The Fight Club.” On 1,353 screens, “Music,” starring Meryl Streep, earned about $3 million for a 10-day total of almost $8 million. In 10th place, “The Fight Club” is bloodied but still unbowed with an estimated $2.5 million in 1,607 theaters and about $32 million. In limited release, David Lynch’s bucolic “The Straight Story,” now on 186 screens, took in $585,000 and has grossed $1.6 million.