‘Legally Blonde’ Arresting in Theaters, Edges ‘The Score’

Lesson of the weekend: Blonds have more fun at the box office.

While most of the attention was being focused on two other new movies--”The Score,” which brings together three intense actors from three different generations: Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Edward Norton; and “ Final Fantasy,” which threatens to replace actors with computer-drawn performers--Reese Witherspoon slinked off with the box-office honors as her “Legally Blonde” laughed its way to an estimated $20.3 million in 2,620 theaters.

Women came out in solidarity to support Witherspoon’s antics at Harvard Law School, comprising about 75% of the audience.

For the long-troubled MGM, “Blonde” is the third No. 1 debut of the year (“Hannibal” and “Heartbreakers” were the other two) and an especially strong opening for a nonstar-driven, youth-oriented comedy. Studio marketing and distribution head Robert Levin credits the film’s performance to the fact that women over the age of 21 came out in equal number to younger women.

“Blonde’s” Cinderella tale seemed as refreshingly old-fashioned as a Hollywood heyday comedy, as did “The Score,” a drama not driven by effects, which notched mostly good reviews--especially for the terrific trio of talent on screen. “Score” snared a strong second with an estimated $19 million in 2,129 theaters.

On the other hand, the technologically advanced “Final Fantasy” fizzled. The computer-animated film, four years in the making, placed fourth with a slow-motion $11.5 million in its first weekend, and $19.1 million since its Wednesday debut.

Lacking a major box-office performer like last year’s “X-Men,” the past weekend fell about 25% behind the comparable period last year, according to Exhibitor Relations, with the top 12 movies grossing an estimated $108 million compared to $145 million last year. It’s the third weekend in a row that grosses have fallen short of last summer, though things should take a turn for the better with the arrival of “Jurassic Park III” on Wednesday and “America’s Sweethearts,” starring Julia Roberts, on Friday.

“Cats & Dogs” managed to hold steady in its second weekend, with only a 45% drop, sniffing and scratching its way to an estimated $12 million in 3,040 theaters for a two-week total of nearly $59 million. Not so for “Scary Movie 2,” which dropped a frightening 54% to a modest $9.5 million take--and only $52.5 million in two weeks, meaning it’ll be lucky to do half as well as the original’s $157 million.

“Kiss of the Dragon” and “A.I.” took major hits over the weekend. “Kiss” declined to an estimated $5.8 million in 2,100 theaters and an OK 10-day total of $22.8 million, meaning only hard-core martial arts fans are going to see it. The third weekend on Spielberg’s sci-fi drama took a disastrous fall of 63% to $5.1 million in 2,830 theaters, bringing the film up to about $70 million. With the end clearly in sight, “A.I.” looks to end up with not much more than $80 million, Spielberg’s lowest-grossing film since 1997’s “Amistad,” which took in only $44 million.

Also on its way out of U.S. theaters is “Pearl Harbor,” which has amassed just more than $190 million thus far, plus another $150 million overseas. The World War II drama debuted over the weekend in the politically sensitive territory of Japan to an estimated $7.3 million on 430 screens, about $17,000 per theater. According to Mark Zoradi, Disney’s head of international distribution, that’s the sixth-best debut of all time in Japan.

In its marketing, Disney decided to offset the infamous surprise attack by stressing the human drama, and the studio made some minor edits in the film to make it less inflammatory to the Japanese. With the strong opening there, Zoradi sees the film eventually outpacing its domestic run, with $250 million or more overseas.