Audiences Pay a Visit to ‘Orange County’

Moviegoers weary of pre-Oscar seriousness escaped to “Orange County” over the weekend, but the teen comedy couldn’t quite match the struggles of a hobbit and a mathematician at the box office.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” was in first place for the fourth weekend in a row, grossing $16.2 million and pushing its total take to $228.3 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“A Beautiful Mind,” which stars Russell Crowe in the true story of a schizophrenic math genius, expanded to wide release last weekend and held its second-place spot with $15.8 million over the weekend for a total of $59 million.

In contrast to those Oscar contenders was “Orange County,” which stars Tom Hanks’ son, Colin Hanks, as a student who goes to wild extremes to get into Stanford. The film opened with $15.1 million over the weekend.

“‘Orange County’ certainly capitalized on a marketplace long on Oscar contenders and short on outrageous comedies,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. “It came into a pretty serious marketplace and shook it up.”

Besides Hanks, “Orange County” showcases industry progeny Schuyler Fisk (Sissy Spacek’s daughter) and Jake Kasdan (son of director Lawrence Kasdan, whose credits include “The Big Chill”).

Fisk plays the girlfriend of Hanks’ character and Jake Kasdan directed the film. The main character’s dope-addled brother is played by Jack Black, who recently starred with Gwyneth Paltrow in “Shallow Hal.”

“We’re very pleased with it. It’s on the high end of our expectations,” said Paramount Distribution President Wayne Lewellen. “Obviously the appeal is to the younger teenage audience.”

“A Beautiful Mind,” which added 369 new theaters over the weekend, showed impressive staying power, falling just 5% from its take last weekend. “Lord of the Rings,” in contrast, dropped 30%.

Overall the weekend’s top 12 films grossed an estimated $89.9 million, down 14% from last weekend and down 28% from the same weekend last year, when “Save the Last Dance” and “Cast Away” topped the box office. However, the same weekend last year was the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

The King holiday comes next weekend, which should contribute to another solid round of numbers, Dergarabedian said. “Black Hawk Down,” Ridley Scott’s combat story about the failed U.S. military sortie in Somalia in 1993, will be expanding into wide release. The big new release is Disney’s “Snow Dogs,” with Cuba Gooding Jr. as a Miami dentist who inherits a team of sled dogs in Alaska. “There’s a lot out there. There’s a lot of movies that people want to see,” Dergarabedian said. “It seems to me to be a very strong January.”