Killer Thriller ‘The Watcher’ Has Its Eye on No. 1

“The Watcher,” a thriller about a serial killer tracking an FBI agent, slew the competition at the weekend box office but wasn’t enough to keep movie revenue from falling behind last year’s record pace.

The suspense film starring Keanu Reeves, James Spader and Marisa Tomei grossed $9.1 million Friday through Sunday, according to box office estimates Sunday.

Another new release, the dark comedy “Nurse Betty,” with Morgan Freeman and Renee Zellweger, opened strong with a $7.3-million gross. It had the weekend’s top per-screen average for films in wide distribution, averaging $5,003 on 1,459 screens.

After three weekends at the top of the box office heap, the high school cheerleader comedy “Bring It On” (Universal) slipped to No. 3 with $6.5 million in ticket receipts, pushing its cumulative total to $44.5 million.

The other big release this weekend, “The Way of the Gun” (Artisan), a bullet-riddled crime drama about a kidnapping that goes awry, grossed $2.2 million to enter the box office chart at No. 9.

The Jennifer Lopez psychological thriller “The Cell” (New Line Cinema), which enjoyed a No. 1 opening last month, dropped to fourth place in its fourth weekend, grossing $3.5 million. Its domestic total now stands at $51.2 million.

Clint Eastwood’s astronaut adventure “Space Cowboys” (Warner Bros.) grossed $2.9 million in its sixth weekend, slipping two notches to No. 5. Its total haul to date has grown to $78.8 million.

The thriller “What Lies Beneath,” starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, leads current releases in cumulative ticket sales, raking in $142.5 million after eight weekends in release. The DreamWorks picture grossed $2.9 million this weekend to remain at No. 6.

Rounding out this week’s top 10 films were: “The Original Kings of Comedy” (Paramount Pictures), holding at No. 7 in its fourth weekend with $2.5 million; “The Art of War” (Warner Bros.), slipping four spots to No. 8 with $2.4 million in its third weekend; and “Highlander: Endgame” (Miramax Films), dipping five places toNo. 10 with $1.8 million.

The reissue of “This Is Spinal Tap” was the top-grossing film in revenue per screen, averaging $5,400 in just 10 theaters.

Overall, the end-of-the-summer doldrums continued with the seventh straight weekend of declining ticket sales, compared with the year-ago period.

The top 12 films together grossed a lackluster $44.7 million, down 28% from the same weekend last year, according to box office tracking service Exhibitor Relations Co. That made it the slowest weekend in North America since Super Bowl weekend at the end of January, the company said.

Until this weekend, box office receipts for the year were slightly ahead of 1999, said Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations. Despite the lower receipts, this has been the second-most successful summer on record for Hollywood. Film revenue was $2.73 billion during the Memorial Day-to-Labor Day period, compared with about $3 billion for last summer.

The industry could still match or exceed last year’s record of $7.5 billion gross revenue depending on the success of holiday releases, Dergarabedian said.

Potential blockbusters scheduled to open this fall include “102 Dalmatians,” “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Unbreakable,” which reteams Bruce Willis with “The Sixth Sense” creator M. Night Shyamalan.

“All it takes is one or two big films to turn everything around,” Dergarabedian said. “I wouldn’t write this year off yet.”