‘Hollow Man’ Scares Off the Weekend’s Competition

The effects-laden “Hollow Man,” starring Kevin Bacon, stealthily maneuvered its way to the top of the box office charts in its opening weekend on 2,956 screens with an estimated take of $26.8 million, far and away surpassing the two other solid weekend debuts, “Space Cowboys” and “Coyote Ugly.” If the estimate proves to be on target, it will beat “The Sixth Sense” ($26.7 million) as August’s best starter ever.

“Hollow” didn’t attract very strong reviews, but by playing up the special-effects angle of the horror film, Sony Pictures lured a hearty mix of both young and over-25 patrons. As expected, the effects garnered more praise in exit polls than the film’s story.

The weekend’s two other openings also scored with their core audiences, to place third and fourth. Clint Eastwood, doing his John Glenn thing, gave “Space Cowboys” just the thrust it needed with older moviegoers for an opening weekend estimate of $17.6 million in 2,805 theaters. That’s Eastwood’s best-ever debut, surpassing “Unforgiven” and “In the Line of Fire.” Predictably, the audience was well over 25, but equally split between men and women, which bodes well for the adventure’s long-term chances.

“Coyote Ugly,” the high-concept tale that mixes “Flashdance” and flesh, was eyeing a pretty estimate of $17 million in 2,653 theaters. Who came to see it? If you saw the trailer or TV spots, that would be easy to guess--young moviegoers under the age of 25, all of whom are still out of school and going to the movies every day. But they could prove to be fickle. Saturday-night attendance tumbled 20% from opening night, and with another youth-oriented film, “The Replacements,” starring Keanu Reeves, arriving next weekend, it will be interesting to see whether “Coyote” has legs.

The three new arrivals attacked “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps” on all sides, sending the Eddie Murphy comedy into a tailspin. “Nutty II,” which opened to more than $42 million last weekend, took a 58% drop to an expected $18 million in 3,245 situations. In part, that can be blamed on sequelitis--sequels to popular movies usually open much bigger than the original but then drop off more sharply. To what degree word of mouth is affecting the decline will only be clear in weekend No. 3. The total after 10 days is a hefty $76.5 million. So, even if it levels out, “Nutty II” looks to do comparable business to the first film (in the $125-million to $130-million range), but nowhere near Murphy’s biggest hit, “Beverly Hills Cop,” which surpassed $200 million.

Overall totals for the first weekend of August demonstrate the summer’s inexorable decline and the likelihood that summer 2000 won’t match last year’s record. The top five hits of the season--”M:I-2,” “Gladiator,” “The Perfect Storm,” “Scary Movie” and “X-Men”--will end up grossing only slightly more than last summer’s top three “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” the “Austin Powers” sequel and “The Sixth Sense.”

Even with five movies grossing about $14 million or more over the weekend, the top 12 films topped out no higher than $116.5 million, compared to $137.5 million for the leading dozen performers at the box office last year (when “Sixth Sense,” “The Blair Witch Project” and “Runaway Bride” each took in $20 million or more). That’s a full 15% off last year’s pace, according to the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

Given the steep falloff rate of many horror movies, it will be interesting to see whether “Hollow Man” can perform more like a thriller, such as “What Lies Beneath,” which is a few days away from the $100-million mark with an acceptable 39% decline in its third weekend, to $13.9 million or so in 2,867 venues. That brings “Beneath” to $95.2 million.

Falling at a rate of 50% or more every weekend, “X-Men” is down to approximately $6.1 million on 2,775 screens for a nonetheless solid one-month total of just under $136 million. The low-budget sleeper “Scary Movie,” which debuted a week before “X-Men,” will likely outgross the lavish comic book adaptation. It’s already at $140 million, though it also declined 50% over the weekend, to $4.25 million on 2,597 screens. “Scary Movie” is now Miramax’s largest-grossing film ever, having surpassed the previous record holder, “Good Will Hunting.”

“The Perfect Storm” is still afloat after six weeks with a good $3.8 million on 2,602 screens, for a total to date of $165.4 million. Still, it will be tough going to try to surpass “Gladiator’s” $180 million to become the summer’s second-largest-grossing film. “M:I-2” is the summer’s leader, with more than $210 million.

In ninth and 10th places are Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson. “Disney’s The Kid” is still hanging around with about $2.9 million expected in its fifth weekend in 1,979 theaters and a total to date of just more than $58 million. “The Patriot” is about out of gunpowder, dropping to approximately $2.3 million in its sixth weekend in 1,810 theaters for a grand total of just under $106 million.

As the big-studio releases of summer begin to abate, Fine Line has sneaked in with the independent comedy “Saving Grace,” starring Brenda Blethyn, which captured an excellent $290,000 on 30 screens in its first weekend. Sony Pictures Classics debuted “The Tao of Steve” on nine screens for a nice $90,407 weekend.