Spielberg’s ‘A.I.’ Has $30 Million First Weekend

Critics got a rare chance to chew the cinematic fat in reviews of Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi film “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” starring Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law. Because reviewers appropriately cautioned parents against taking children to the film, which was originally conceived by the late Stanley Kubrick, the 2 1/2-hour drama drew primarily adults in big cities, according to Warner Bros. distribution head Dan Fellman, meaning the film did best in the evening, when it was limited to one or two shows.

Taking all of that into consideration, “A.I.” got off to a relatively strong $30-million start in 3,242 theaters--comparable to Spielberg’s last film, “Saving Private Ryan” and well above the $21-million of Kubrick’s final effort, “Eyes Wide Shut,” which starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Exit polls for “A.I.” were strong, with an 80% approval rating, according to Fellman. Word-of-mouth on “A.I.” will be especially crucial in determining whether the robot-with-a-heart drama will either become the must-see summer movie for the over-25 crowd, or suffer the same fate as many other movies now in theaters--fast out of the gate, then quickly out to pasture.

As with “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” the previous weekend, second-weekend ticket sales for “The Fast and the Furious” were sliced in half, down to a still-racy $20 million on 2,723 screens, for a high-octane 10-day total of almost $78 million, helped substantially by midweek business. “The Fast and the Furious” should be about a quarter-mile behind “Tomb Raider” in reaching $100 million, though after only 17 days, “Tomb Raider” dropped by an additional 51% to $9.8 million on 3,349 screens--just enough to get to $101 million. With “Scary Movie 2” and “Kiss of the Dragon” coming up this week, “The Fast and Furious” and “Tomb Raider” will have to cede even more of the youth audience, which will curtail their upside potential.

The family film arena has been no less punishing and competitive, with the exception of “Shrek,” which keeps tooling along, with $7.1 million expected in its seventh weekend in 2,704 theaters and more than $227 million to date. The other two entries, however, appear more sluggish: “Dr. Dolittle 2” dropped an acceptable 38% in its second weekend, to a frisky $15.4 million prediction in 3,053 runs and a fine 10-day total of about $51 million; “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” declined to a still seaworthy estimate of $7.8 million in 3,030 theaters in weekend No. 3, for $58 million so far. With another kiddie entry, “Cats & Dogs,” arriving on Wednesday, neither “Dolittle” nor “Atlantis” may have enough gas to reach $100 million.

Of the weekend’s other debuts, John Singleton’s drama “Baby Boy” got off to a fine start in only 1,533 urban and suburban theaters, with about $8.6 million and almost $12 million in its first five days. That will almost pay for the $16-million production, which is showing some crossover business based on the popularity of R&B; star Tyrese. The teen romantic drama “crazy/beautiful,” starring Kirsten Dunst, had a weak debut of about $4.5 million in 1,601 theaters. Paramount slipped the urban comedy “Pootie Tang,” featuring Chris Rock, into only 712 theaters without much fanfare, resulting in a wan $1.55-million debut, no higher than No. 12 on the charts.

At the bottom of the Top 10 are “Pearl Harbor,” which collected about $4.4 million in its sixth weekend in 2,305 theaters. “Pearl Harbor’s” total is nearly $180 million, which makes it unlikely to reach the exclusive $200-million club, whose members include “Shrek” and, soon, “The Mummy Returns.” “Swordfish” is on its way out after only four weeks, dropping to an estimated $4 million on 2,225 screens as it rounds the $60-million corner.

Totals for the Top 12 films were slightly behind last year. Because the Fourth of July fell on a Tuesday last year, the studios opened their big guns, “The Perfect Storm” and “The Patriot,” the previous Friday. This year, “Scary Movie 2” and “Cats and Dogs” are being saved for the holiday, which lands on a Wednesday. “Kiss of the Dragon” will wait until July 6. Still, according to box-officer tracker Exhibitor Relations, the estimated $115 million total was only about 7% behind last year.

The major studios are anticipating the upcoming week’s business to be sizable because the midweek holiday will be, for many, the start of a five-day vacation. Almost at the midway point, the summer is charting a record course, and the second half of the season is chockablock with flashy titles.

In the specialized film arena, the two dominant films are “The Anniversary Party” and “Sexy Beast.” The former collected an estimated $400,000 in 103 theaters for a monthlong total of $1.8 million. The latter is up to 109 screens for an attractive $717,000 and almost $2 million in only three weeks. The frothy French comedy “The Closet” opened in New York and San Francisco to $80,000 on four screens. “Crimson Rivers” settled for $35,000 in seven major-city screens.