Box Receipts Likely Will Bring Holiday Cheer to Studios

Holiday movie business doesn’t start in earnest until today, but that didn’t prevent theater owners from having a merry little $110-million weekend.

According to Exhibitor Relations, that’s the anticipated total for the top 12 films from Friday to Sunday--including the usually quiet Christmas Eve--which is nearly 15% ahead of last year when Christmas fell on a Saturday and admissions went into overdrive by Sunday.

Each of the top five films was expected to gross $10 million or more for the three-day weekend--all of them star vehicles, by the way--starting with the ever-reliable Tom Hanks, whose virtual one-man adventure “Cast Away” swept into 2,763 theaters with an anticipated $30.1 million in its initial three days.

Among Hanks’ films, only “Saving Private Ryan” grossed more ($30.6 million) in its opening weekend, and that was in midsummer. With ticket buyers coming from practically every segment of the audience, “Cast Away” should help end 2000 with the sound of breaking records if it can cause that big a ruckus before Christmas.

Second place was inhabited by another reliable ticket seller, Mel Gibson, whose “What Women Want” got its first real taste of holiday competition.

After a record December opening, the Gibson comedy fell by more than half to a still hearty $16.3 million on 3,044 screens and a 10-day total of just under $65 million, meaning that by early 2001, it should join the $100-million club.

Two new films hit the ground running, positioning themselves to take advantage of the coming week’s attendance increase. “Family Man” starring Nicolas Cage opened with a promising $12.8 million predicted for its first three days on 2,388 screens. Sandra Bullock’s comedy “Miss Congeniality” paraded down the runway in 2,668 theaters with an estimated $10.3 million.

Jim Carrey is still purloining in fourth place with the 6-week-old “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” having yet another double-digit weekend--about $11.6 million in 3,150 theaters.

“Grinch” has now rounded the $230-million mark, easily the biggest haul of any film this year with solid holiday business still ahead.

The timing for the weekend’s remaining national release, “Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000,” was a bit off. The first three days brought a bloodless $6.5-million estimate in 2,204 theaters. While “Dracula 2000” should benefit from the year-end school recess, given the life span of horror movies, especially in a crowded marketplace, it will probably give up the ghost shortly after the 1st.

Sixth place went to “The Emperor’s New Groove,” which struggled to remain visible amid “Grinch”-mania.

The last three days on 2,887 screens, “Emperor” took in about $8 million for a moderately groovy total to date of just under $23 million. With kids out of school until the end of the year, “Emperor” has a week to court the family crowd.

“Dude, Where’s My Car?” had a crack-up in its second weekend, dipping 67% to about $4.5 million in 2,100 theaters. Even in idle, however, “Dude” has coined more than $23 million in 10 days and should pick up some more change before joining “Dracula” among the new year’s fast-disappearing acts.

“Vertical Limit” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” were in the ninth and 10th spots, respectively, with about $4.4 million for the former (on 2,405 screens and $37 million so far) and a strong $2.8 million for the latter on only 139 screens. That’s almost $20,000 a screen and $5.6 million in limited release so far.

A host of new films in limited release arrived, only some of which were reporting figures.

The Coen brothers’ Depression-era comedy “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” chimed in with a virtual sell-out $140,000 on only five screens, helped somewhat by Golden Globe nominations. “Finding Forrester,” starring Sean Connery captured about $50,000 during the weekend on three screens and broadens to about 200 starting today.

David Mamet’s screwballish comedy “State and Main” managed about $400,000 in 72 theaters its opening weekend. Julian Schnabel’s “Before Night Falls” did $60,000 or so on eight screens in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The final releases of the year are due this week, including “All the Pretty Horses” which debuts in wide release today as well as limited runs of “Thirteen Days,” “Malena,” and on Wednesday, “Traffic.”