Monster Labor Day for ‘Jeepers Creepers’

Moviegoers turned their peepers on “Jeepers Creepers,” a horror flick that topped the box office with a record debut for a film opening over Labor Day weekend.

The tale of a sister and brother preyed upon by a bestial killer, “Jeepers Creepers” took in $15.8 million during the four-day weekend, according to studio estimates Monday. That topped the previous debut record of $9.8 million for “The Crow: City of Angels” in 1996.

Typically a quiet weekend for theaters, Labor Day is not known for big film debuts. The weekend often is dominated by holdover films in the No. 1 spot such as last year’s “Bring It On” or “The Sixth Sense” in 1999. “The Sixth Sense,” which was in its fifth week of release, still holds the overall record gross for Labor Day weekend with $29.3 million.

“O,” an update of Shakespeare’s “Othello” that was the weekend’s other new film, debuted with $6.9 million--putting it in seventh place for the weekend. Set in a Southern boarding school, “O” stars Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett and Julia Stiles.

The weekend could break the overall Labor Day box-office record set in 1999. The top 12 films over Labor Day in 1999 grossed $88.8 million, compared with $94.7 million this past weekend.

“It was a fitting end to what’s going to wind up being a record summer,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box office.

Hollywood’s summer revenue is pushing $3.1 billion, breaking the 1999 record of just under $3 billion. But with ticket prices up an estimated 10% in the last two years, actual movie attendance was down a bit from 1999.

Released by MGM’s United Artists banner, “Jeepers Creepers” is the first film it released under a deal with Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope company. Coppola was an executive producer on “Jeepers Creepers.”

Though horror films generally do not hold up after opening weekend, “Jeepers Creepers” should turn a tidy profit for MGM-United Artists, which acquired domestic distribution rights for $2.5 million.

“It’s been a while since there’s been a real, right-on horror movie with a good, old-fashioned monster,” said Robert Levin, MGM’s head of distribution. “There’s a group of people who probably don’t go to many movies other than those.”

Playing in 2,944 locations, “Jeepers Creepers” averaged $5,379 a theater, compared with a $4,812 average in 1,434 cinemas for “O.”

After the Columbine school shootings, the release of “O” was delayed for two years because of its harsh depiction of teen violence. Original distributor Miramax decided against releasing it and sold the film to Lions Gate, an independent film company that has taken chances on such films as “Dogma” and “American Psycho.”

Rainy weather in much of the country probably boosted movie attendance, and this year’s heavy slate of summer films also helped bring in the crowds.