Weekend Debuts Were No Laughing Matter

A slew of new comedies hit the screens this weekend but dismal openings gave them nothing to laugh about, according to industry estimates Sunday.

A three-week-old film, “The Whole Nine Yards,” continued its lock on the top box office spot with $7.3 million in ticket sales, while “The Next Best Thing” and “Drowning Mona” opened in second and fourth place with $6 million and $5.9 million, respectively.

By comparison, the comedy “Analyze This” opened with $18.4 million on the same weekend last year.

“The Next Best Thing” stars Madonna as a woman who ends up pregnant after a drunken night with gay friend Rupert Everett. “Drowning Mona” stars Danny DeVito as a small-town police chief investigating the death of a local shrew played by Bette Midler.

“What Planet Are You From?” tanked, debuting out of the top 10 with only a $3-million gross from Friday through Sunday. Garry Shandling’s comedy about an alien sent to Earth to impregnate a woman got several poor reviews.

“It’s disappointing,” said Ed Russell, a spokesman for Columbia Pictures. “Clearly, we were hurt by some of the reviews.”

More than half the top 10 films were comedies, and the audience just wasn’t large enough to go around, said Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., which tracks box office receipts.

“Audiences were sort of pulled in a lot of different directions,” he said.

“My Dog Skip” zoomed up the ladder in its eighth week, jumping from 54th place to third with $5.94 million as it went into wide release.

The sci-fi thriller “Pitch Black” tied for fifth place with the comedy “Snow Day” at $5 million each.

Buoyed by Oscar nominations, “American Beauty” and “The Cider House Rules” held up well. “American Beauty” was in ninth place with $4.1 million and has now earned more than $93 million in 25 weeks. “Cider House” grossed more than $4 million, adding 150 theaters.

Several films had good openings in limited release, led by “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” by cult favorite Jim Jarmusch. Starring Forest Whitaker as a spiritual hit man who lives by a samurai code, the film opened at 14 theaters in New York and earned $175,000 for a per-screen average of $12,500.