‘Pearl Harbor’ and ‘Shrek’ Lead Another Record-Breaker

While three new films debuted nationally over the weekend, the real fireworks display was the almost neck-and-neck contest between “Pearl Harbor” and “Shrek,” which helped contribute to a second successive record weekend at U.S. movie theaters.

Disney’s World War II spectacular and DreamWorks’ animated blockbuster ended up less than $2 million apart, with “Pearl Harbor” clinging to its No. 1 edge. Despite a post-holiday drop of nearly 50%, “Pearl” sailed in with a still-bombastic estimate of $30 million in 3,214 theaters.

After surpassing $100 million in its ninth day, a record for the Disney company, the 10-day total is just under $120 million, nicely ahead of the comparable period for last year’s “Mission: Impossible 2,” which ended up with about $215 million total.

“Shrek” showed an amazing hold, dropping less (33%) than any movie in the top 10 except for “Memento,” to an expected $28.4 million on 3,661 screens and a three-week total of almost $150 million.

At this rate, “Shrek” looks to be one of the year’s top-grossing films and the one to beat for summer. It should reach $200 million in a cakewalk and rival “Toy Story 2,” which ended up at about $250 million, or maybe even “The Lion King,” the highest-grossing animated film ever, at more than $300 million.

The “Pearl Harbor” versus “Shrek” heat somewhat overshadowed the good starts for the three new films that opened over the weekend, all of which found their target audience--especially the anthropomorphic comedy “The Animal,” starring Rob Schneider, which raised some industry hackles when its distributor, Sony Pictures, paid exhibitors to feature the film’s trailer at the head of movies such as “The Mummy Returns” and “Shrek.”

The added exposure seems to have benefited “Animal,” since it not only brought in teens and the college-age crowd but also younger kids and their folks, according to Tom Sherak, a principal at Revolution Studios, which produced the film.

“Animal’s” debut was $19.8 million on 2,788 screens, well in front of Schneider’s “Deuce Bigalow,” which started at about $12 million and ultimately grossed $75 million.

The postmodern musical “Moulin Rouge,” starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, opened in L.A. and New York two weeks ago. Over the weekend, it spread out across the nation on 2,279 screens, and managed to snare the young female audience (62% of patrons were women, almost 70% of them under 30) for a melodic first-weekend total of about $14.2 million.

The comedy “What’s the Worst That Could Happen?,” starring Martin Lawrence, brought in a largely African American crowd for an estimated $13.2 million in its first weekend in 2,675 theaters, but failed to have the impact of Lawrence’s “Big Momma’s House,” which opened on the same weekend last summer to more than $25 million.

With the top two films performing in blockbuster territory and five movies grossing more than $13 million each, the box office performance of the top 12 movies was the strongest ever for the first weekend of June, sustaining the momentum from a record Memorial Day, for a cool $122.6 million, according to box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. That’s almost 27% ahead of the top dozen a year ago. Ticket prices increase from 3% to 5% a year, so anything above that represents a clear indication of greater attendance.

Total box office grosses for 2001 are running more than 10% ahead of 2000.

Rounding out the top 10, “The Mummy Returns” went past $180 million in its fifth weekend, grossing approximately $7.5 million over the past three days in 3,185 theaters. The sequel is still the year’s top-grossing film thus far.

“A Knight’s Tale” is at about $50 million after a month in theaters, with the current weekend having contributed about $3.4 million to that total on 2,441 screens.

“Bridget Jones’s Diary” is the longest-lived member of the top 10, its eighth weekend bringing in $2.1 million in 1,301 theaters, for more than $65 million to date.

The third weekend of “Angel Eyes,” with Jennifer Lopez, plummeted to about $1.8 million in 2,007 theaters (and less than $22 million overall). “Memento,” down a slight 31% from the holiday, got about $1.1 million on only 479 screens, with more than $16 million so far.

Box Office

“Pearl Harbor,” with Josh Hartnett, continued its reign at No. 1 over the weekend.

Estimated weekend grosses (in millions):

1. “Pearl Harbor”: $30

2. “Shrek”: $28.4

3. “The Animal”: $19.8

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