August 2000

Wesley Snipes practices The Art of War in his bid to conquer the charts this weekend. The cheerleaders of Bring It On beckon with booty galore. The mature mobsters of The Crew insinuate themselves upon the territory of the aged astronauts of Space Cowboys. None are exhibiting much break-out potential, so overall box office should continue to fall in line with the usual August doldrums.

Rather than a thoughtful meditation on its namesake, the ancient Sun Tzu treatise, The Art of War is just a by-the-numbers thriller written by the same guy whose only other credit is the similarly mundane Snipes-starrer Murder at 1600.

Snipes is a proven action star, with all of his hits, save his biggest White Men Can't Jump, being in this vein. His last star turn Blade was unsheathed at about this time two years ago with $17.1 million from 2,322 theaters, ultimately dicing up $70.1 million total.

Art should benefit from being the first pure action flick since Gone in 60 Seconds and Shaft. However, Universal Soldier: The Return and Chill Factor had a similar situation when they opened at this time last year. Granted though, Art looks more kick-ass than those two bombs, which each opened to around $4.5 million. Plus, while not exactly the same genre, The 13th Warrior debuted with $10.3 million on this weekend last year.

However, the vibe exuded by Art's ad campaign is closer to that of a Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle like Knock-Off and Maximum Risk, than, say, Blade or Passenger 57.

Contrary to conventional wisdom and its 2,630-theater release, The Art of War may not defeat its opponents this weekend as an opening in the $10 million vicinity seems in order.

Bring It On marks the unexpectedly formidable competition as the cheerleader comedy enters the tournament with teen girls firmly in its ranks. The suburbia versus inner city aspect could even rally kids from both sides of the tracks.

Now, traditionally speaking, this is not the time to bring on the teen flicks. Kids don't like to be reminded that the new school year looms. For example, Bring It On star Kirsten Dunst didn't have much luck with her late summer teen flicks last year. The similarly competition-themed Drop Dead Gorgeous opened to $4 million and dropped out of the pageant with $10.6 million total, while Dick was impeached with just $2.2 million en route to $6.3 million total. Then again, none of those, nor any from recent Augusts past, have been launched with such verve.

The plethora of booty shots could make guys quite amenable to it as well. Just contemplating that car wash scene with the girls shakin' that thang in their bikinis... Mmmm, quite amenable indeed. What's more, such blatant T & A didn't deter girls from flocking to Coyote Ugly.

Ra-ra-ing at 2,381 theaters, Bring It On could arouse enough box office spirit to win the game, possibly opening in the low teen range.

The Crew has a remarkably similar high concept as this month's sleeper hit Space Cowboys. Instead of Grumpy Old Men meets Armageddon, it's Grumpy Old Men meets Goodfellas, replete with four old guys and a black-and-white opening sequence of when they were young. Cowboys, however, had bonafide star power, special effects, action, good reviews and a much wider release, translating to a $18.1 million blast-off.

Burt Reynolds and Richard Dreyfuss simply haven't been known as mobsters in the past. The former is iconic mostly for Smokey and the Bandit and hanging out with Dom Deluise, and the latter for, well, being a whiny liberal. Hence, the comedy, in potential audience's minds, should lack the punch that Robert DeNiro had riffing on his persona in Analyze This, or even James Caan in Mickey Blue Eyes, which opened to $10.2 million about this time last year. Then again, Bruce Willis had the same problem with The Whole Nine Yards, yet that became a modest hit, opening to $13.7 million last February and closing with $57.3 million total.

Throw in the hesitancy of its older-skewing audience to turn out on opening weekend, and The Crew should have a modest debut from its 1,510 theaters.

Over the same frame last year, The Sixth Sense saw yet another weekend atop the charts, easing by 16% to $20.1 million and $138.9 million after four weeks. The 13th Warrior hacked its way into second with $10.3 million from 2,306 theaters. The long delayed and costly epic mustered just $32.7 million by the end of its campaign. Four other studio dumps debuted to piddling numbers. In Too Deep uncovered $4.2 million from 667 joints on course to $14 million. The Astronaut's Wife never got off the ground with $4 million from 2,209 pads, sputtering out at $10.7 million. Albert Brooks' The Muse amused few with $3.9 million from 1,263 venues on its way to an uninspiring $11.6 million. Brendan Fraser started the summer with a smash hit The Mummy and ended it with the dud Dudley Do-Right, doing just $3 million from 1,802 theaters and fumbling its way to a $9.8 million total.

The Cell rode the bountiful booty of Jennifer Lopez and other dazzling eye candy to $17.5 million from 2,411 theaters. The performance was on par with New Line stable mate Blade, which opened to $17.1 million from 2,322 theaters on the same weekend two years ago (though around $19 million adjusted for inflation).

Though it was the best debut of Lopez' career, the rumored billion-dollar insurance policy on her prodigious booty is all the more bizarre when even the less distinct barmaid booty of Coyote Ugly opened to $17 million as well. With its focus on grizzly and music video-style imagery over the script, The Cell divided audiences, suggested by a 7% Saturday dip and only 69% favorable rating, likely leading to precipitous drops in the future.

Day-amn! The Original Kings of Comedy had $11.1 million worth of ticket buyers whooping it up at 847 theaters. The concert film averaged $13,051, easily the highest of the top 60 and was one of the most impressive openings of the year given the genre, relatively low star power and limited release. Apparently, the synergistic promotion that Paramount got from fellow Viacom subsidiary MTV worked, despite not being terribly funny. Shot on digital video, it cost just $3 million to make and marks the largest debut for a Spike Lee-helmed flick, just ahead of Malcolm X with $9.9 million in 1992. Then again, this taping of the four sitcom stars' tour wasn't really one of his "joints" in the fullest sense. Kings is also further evidence of the viability of the urban market, which, largely ignored before, has borne such hits as Big Momma's House, Shaft and The Nutty Professor II this season alone.

Godzilla's latest razing of Japan raised $4.4 million from 2,111 theaters, landing in eleventh place. Though Sony spent just $1 million for the domestic rights and $12 million on the prints and advertising, the rubber-suited one's grosses will likely take a dive given the front-loaded niche audience, making profit minimal at best.

Space Cowboys again were flying high on the lowest decline of the wide releases. Down just 27% to $9.5 million and $53.8 million to date, the crowd-pleasing curmudgeons avoided the fatigue that usually sets in for this kind of picture in its third frame. Among sophomores The Replacements was the only one to stay in the game, as the football comedy gave up 35% of its yardage to $7.2 million and $23.4 million to date.

The Nutty Professor II became the twelfth picture of the year to cross the century mark after consuming $6.3 million, bringing its total to $104.3 million. At this same point last year 13 pictures had reached this milestone and that's with a lower average ticket price, $5.08 vs. today's $5.25.

Theaters playing Hollow Man were 54% emptier with $6 million and $61.6 million to date, enough to make the $95 million thriller to go from first to seventh place. Meanwhile, plagued by poor word-of-mouth Autumn in New York and Bless the Child each lost half their audience to $5.5 and $4.8 million respectively.

Chicken Run cleared that $100 million fence last Monday. With $902,870 this weekend, it's total reached $101.8 million, nudging past The Prince of Egypt to be not only DreamWork's highest grossing family picture, but also the top non-Disney animated feature of all time.

The top twelve pictures totaled $86.7 million, down 10% from last weekend and down 3% from the same frame last year when The Sixth Sense topped the chart for the third weekend in a row with $24 million.

Jennifer Lopez and her billion-dollar booty star in The Cell, an extended music video about what would happen if she dumped Puff Daddy for Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

The serial killer thriller on the sci-fi tip marks New Line's first and last picture of the season, and a release date that they've made into a studio tradition for their darker pictures. It started in 1995 when Mortal Kombat opened to $23.3 million on this very same weekend and finished with $70.5 million. Spawn had a $21.2 million birth in 1997, while Blade sucked up $17.1 million in 1998. The studio also unleashed Seven back in September 1995 to $13.9 million and eventual $100.1 million total. On the other hand, they're not infallible as duds like last year's The Astronaut's Wife and 1996's The Island of Dr. Moreau were also launched at this time.

The Cell will be Lopez' first test as a headlining star. Her two previous major roles, Out of Sight and U-Turn, opened with $12 and $2.7 million respectively. Selena and Anaconda were sizable roles as well, but she wasn't pushed as the star of either in their campaigns. The triple platinum sales of her debut album, On the 6, while high didn't match the hype and were dwarfed by the diamond plus sales of the teeny-boppers. Hence, Lopez and her prodigious boot-ay seem to be more famous for being famous than anything else right now. Co-star Vince Vaughn may be "money," but the former Swinger's pictures haven't made money. Since his big break he's starred in such bombs as the similarly advertised Psycho remake and Return to Paradise.

With such a weak marketplace, topping the chart should be accomplished handily though, but how high will this former Fly Girl fly? After all, the imagery strikes a chord in a similar way as The Matrix. Mind blowin' into 2,411 theaters, The Cell could have one hell of an opening, say, in the low twenty million range. Booty-licious!

After allowing uber-hack Roland Emmerich to use Godzilla as a platform to make his own Jurassic Park, Sony does right by the fans by releasing a real Godzilla movie in all its rubber-suited glory. The domestic rights reportedly cost less than $1 million with an additional $12 million going towards prints and advertising. Not much of a risk, and potentially quite profitable. Sony hopes to capitalize on kids' interest in Japanese products such as Pokemon, as well as on grownups' nostalgia. The dialogue was even intentionally dubbed out of sync. Still, the primary audience could be too niche to equal significant business, while the less devout will wait for it to appear on TV where most of them know the giant lizard from anyway. Rampaging through 2,111 theaters, Godzilla 2000 could amass around $5 million this weekend.

The not-so Original Kings of Comedy marks the first comedy concert film to get a prominent release in quite some time. The last one was Martin Lawrence's You So Crazy which opened to $2.5 million from 417 theaters back in 1994, totaling $10.2 million. MTV has featured spots of the four "kings" chillin', only their humor is rather bland and obvious, about as funny as, say, Jay Leno. Perhaps the "original" was added to the title to help differentiate it from the Martin Scorsese picture of the similar name, or to make it sound kind of like "original gangstas." At any rate, it's odd since Richard Pryor and even Eddie Murphy precede these sitcom stars. Their WB shows don't have that many viewers, and only a fraction of which is liable to pay to see a taped performance of them on the big screen. Live yes, as the trailer points out that a million tickets were sold during their tour. Plus The Cell should have the urban market tied up. Playing at 847 halls, these Kings could have a serf-like opening of around $4 million, possibly finishing outside of the top ten.

Though more than half of its audience dissipated last weekend, Hollow Man still narrowly slipped past Space Cowboys for the top spot. It won't be a photo finish this time. The aged astronauts' trajectory is et for another strong hold to around $9 million, allowing them to orbit second place once again. Meanwhile Hollow's descent should not abate by much, putting it neck and neck with The Replacements. The Keanu Reeves football comedy hasn't achieved good enough field position to score much more than around $6.5 million.

Chick flicks haven't been holding up too well lately. Earlier this year Hanging Up and Where the Heart Is, for instance, tumbled 45% and 38% respectively in their sophomore sessions. With a terminal case of poor word-of-mouth, Autumn in New York could fall even more precipitously, 50% to around $5.7 million. Bless the Child was leaving a lot of moviegoers cursing as well. Though it might not plummet into the abyss quite as quickly, it could lose 45% to around $5 million.

Over the same frame last year, The Sixth Sense continued to dominate, down just 7% to $24 million, crossing the century mark on the way to $293.5 million total. The new releases were part of the usual August dump-a-thon. Mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes took in $10.2 million for third place and was soon fuggoddabout with a $33.9 million total. Universal Soldier Return-ed with little fanfare, mustering just $4.6 million en route to $10.6 million total. Teaching Mrs. Tingle, the directorial debut and finish of Scream scribe Kevin Williamson, flunked out in tenth place on course to a $9 million total.

To borrow a cheesy metaphor from one of the new releases, 'tis the autumn of the summer. For the first time since Mission: Impossible 2's two-week reign, a new release did not top the chart. What's more, with no Sixth Sense boost, overall box office was down compared to last year for the third weekend in a row.

On Sunday, studio estimates had two pictures tied for first and the next five within $2 million of each other. Hollow Man and Space Cowboys were pegged at $13.1 million by their respective studios, Sony and Warner Bros. The photo finish continued when the actual numbers were tallied.

The invisible man ended up edging out the aged astronauts by just $31,684 as it grossed $13.05 million. It was a Hollow victory though, as poor word-of-mouth contributed to 51% of its audience vanishing. With $50.3 million thus far, the $95 million production marks another disappointment for Sony, which hasn't had an unmitigated smash since last summer's Big Daddy.

Clint Eastwood and crew were riding high on a decline of just 28% to $13.02 million, the lowest of the wide releases. The $65 million crowd-pleaser has amassed $39 million to date. Right now, its trajectory points to a final tally orbiting $85 million, making it Eastwood's highest flyer since 1993's In the Line of Fire.

Third and fourth place came down to the wire as well, as The Replacements nudged Autumn in New York out of third when all was said and done by grossing just $52,208 more. It didn't make the first string, though, with an $11.04 million from 2,754 stadiums. Despite being the fourth biggest opening of his career, studio execs will be saying "whoa" when Keanu Reeves' agent again asks $15 million for anything outside of Matrix sequels. To be fair though, the marketing campaign for the $70 million football comedy didn't feature him prominently.

Autumn sapped $10.99 million from 2,255 theaters. Though it cost $40 million to make, MGM acquired the domestic rights for just $14 million, so they should turn a profit. It's the third best bow of both Richard Gere's and Winona Ryder's careers (unadjusted for inflation). A Saturday bump up of just 8% for a picture primarily appealing to adult women indicates poor word-of-mouth and that a precipitous decline is in store next weekend.

Too late to capitalize on the millenium hullabaloo by eight months, Bless the Child was cursed with a $9.4 million debut from 2,524 theaters. With mixed audience reaction, it should, like the other new releases, suffer steep drop-offs to atone for its filmmaking sins.

The Nutty Professor II leveled off some after a 57% crash diet last weekend. The $84 million fat-suit comedy lost 43% this time to $10.2 million, consuming $94 million to date. It should surpass the $100 million mark by next Saturday, though surpassing the original's $128.8 million could be a stretch.

What Lies Beneath rebounded after a 39% dip last weekend, easing by 29% this time to $9.7 million and $112 million total. This past Wednesday is when it became the tenth picture of the year to pass the century mark.* Adding $1.3 million, DreamWorks' stable mate Chicken Run has clucked up $99.9 million so far, and should follow suit on Monday to be the eleventh.

Meanwhile, Coyote Ugly sure wasn't pretty this weekend as it hemorrhaged 54% of its audience to $7.8 million, the steepest drop of any wide release. With $34.3 million to date, the $45 million barmaids with a hefty marketing tab could have trouble making ends meat.

Saving Grace is shaping up to be this year's Full Monty just as Fine Line positioned it to be. Adding five screens, the British marijuana comedy inhaled $351,066 at 35 theaters, up 22% and actually improving its average in the process.

The top 12 pictures totaled $96.6 million million, down 18.3% from last weekend and down 14.6% from the same frame last year when The Sixth Sense saw the top spot with $25.8 million and Bowfinger opened in second with $18.1 million.

Next weekend, Jennifer Lopez and her billion-dollar booty get their first test as headliners in The Cell. Sony releases a real Godzilla movie in all its poorly dubbed, rubber-suited glory after that 1998 Jurassic Park-wannabe. Meanwhile, The Original Kings of Comedy hopes to be more Raw like Eddie Murphy than So Crazy like Martin Lawrence.

* Tangent: Much has been made of What Lies Beneath making Harrison Ford the first star to have $100 million pictures in four different decades. First of all, it's technically still the '90s until 2001. Secondly, the 70's blockbusters he appeared in, American Graffiti and Star Wars, cannot be counted as Harrison Ford pictures. The former was a bit part, and the latter was a supporting role, billed below the title, the picture that put him on the map to begin with. And what of the classic stars like John Wayne (whose pictures spanned across five decades)? Sure, none of their pictures grossed $100 million, but at least one in each decade may have sold enough tickets to equal that sum today. Therefore, it's all hype to suggest that Ford made history in this regard. He does have a chance, though, to achieve this legitimately, if he is still working in 2011.

Keanu Reeves hopes to "whoa" the crowd with The Replacements. Richard Gere and Winona Ryder extinguish sparks in Autumn in New York. Whilst Bless the Child tries to damn the competition, damn them all to hell!

The Replacements is yet another sports picture about the ragtag underdogs rising to the occasion, a la Major League or Necessary Roughness. For the first time since the Bill & Ted movies, Keanu goes for intentional laughs to prove he's worth his astronomical post-Matrix asking price.

The ads mostly just show the football players singing and dancing to disco classic "I Will Survive," interspersed with a handful of blooper style hijinks. Nary a laugh to be found. Then at the end, Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman are mentioned as an afterthought, nary a clip of them to be found before that. If you're going to pay $15 million for Keanu, why not highlight his presence in the picture? This is the second bungled campaign in a row for Warner Bros. after Space Cowboys, which still managed to open well on the strength of its premise and stars alone. The Replacements is weaker on this front.

On the other hand, football pictures have been on a minor roll lately. The last one Any Given Sunday (also from the WB) grossed $20.6 million in its first five days this past Christmas, scoring $75.5 million total. It wasn't a comedy though. Before that came Varsity Blues with an upset opening of $15.2 million in January 1999, ending up at the $52.9 million line. Both of those pictures started during the NFL playoffs, whereas The Replacements kicks off during the pre-season. Therefore, it's coming in before the frenzy, yet after a long draught.

Warner Bros. did hold sneak previews the past two weekends to drum up some word-of-mouth. The humor appears to be somewhat similar to Adam Sandler's smash, The Waterboy, making it appealing to guys. Plus, this is the first sports picture of the season, and those shots of writhing cheerleaders can't hurt with this crowd. Keanu's presence and love interest could make it more palatable for girls as well.

Starting its drive in 2,754 stadiums, The Replacements could displace Hollow Man from the top spot with an opening in the mid-teens.

Bless the Child recently settled on this date after being in release schedule limbo. Since it features a kid with supernatural talents, the obvious intent is to repeat last August's Sixth Sense success, which also happened to be a last minute summer addition. The thing is, it has more similarities to Eddie Murphy's The Golden Child, with only the religion and the tone differentiating it.

Business should be closer to Stir of Echoes than Sense. Catch phrase "After you" won't likely capture America in the way that "I see dead people" did. With the millennium behind us, people just aren't as interested in satanic thrillers. Last year, even similar pictures like End of Days and Stigmata didn't fare as well as Blair Witch and others among the horror renaissance. The Ninth Gate opened to $6.6 million earlier this year, mustering $18.7 million total.

The final "shock" shot of a demon howling through a train window doesn't mesh with Kim Basinger's initial reaction shot, not to mention that the creature is hokey. Therefore, the intended scare does not occur, no matter how much the voice of Paramount wants you to be thrilled, who happens to sound a lot like the snooty BMW announcer if he was on crack.

Basinger has never been a real box office draw, though she's at her most potent in sexy roles. After a two-year hiatus since winning the Oscar for L.A. Confidential, she opened the summer in the more matronly I Dreamed of Africa. It grossed just $6.5 million total. Bless the Child is a similar style of role, though the elements surrounding her are bankable enough to gross more.

Cursing 2,524 theaters with its presence, Bless the Child could take in around $9 million riding on the heels of the waning horror train. It's too glossy and generic than genuinely creepy to break out though.

Speaking of creepy, Richard Gere and Winona Ryder "remind us what it's like to fall in love" and to lose our lunch in Autumn in New York. Ryder already looks and acts younger than her 28 years, making the age disparity, not to mention the lack of chemistry, all the more pronounced.

When Ryder shrieks "You're fabulous" to Gere, it's cringe-inducing. That girl's voice just seems to get shriller and shriller as she gets older. To be fair, the writers gave her some real howlers. Such as when Gere asks "What do you want for Christmas," she answers "More of this." Or "Now, I know why you've loved so many women. Because you knew if you ever held onto one, you'd never let go... Never." "Now, I'm getting veklempt" is the next thing you expect to come out of her mouth a la Mike Myers' Coffee Talk.

The commercials reveal the terminal illness of Ryder's character halfway through. Then that Goo Goo Dolls song blares, the one that's played over just about every ad for movies or shows with romantic elements. "So why don't you slide..." An unintentionally jolting juxtaposition it seems.

The picture's title is, of course, a cliched and obvious metaphor. Ryder's character is dying like the leaves in autumn, while, at middle age, Gere is in the autumn of his life. Not to mention, the affair is set in autumn. And, yes, people got paid for this.

MGM didn't screen the picture for critics, reportedly because they didn't want the ending revealed. No one buys that though. Rarely are critics in the business of spoilers. The real reason is likely the usual one, the movie stinks and they want to wait until after the opening before word-of-mouth sets in too much. After all, reviews are more likely to affect this kind of picture than the usual summer fare.

If anything, it's MGM's own marketing campaign that seems to give away key plot points like the terminal illness. Besides, spoilers shouldn't concern them too much since the target demographic is adult women. As DreamWorks cynically demonstrated with What Lies Beneath and Paramount with Double Jeopardy, this audience seems to prefer to know what's going to happen ahead of time.

With this summer release date for Autumn, MGM hopes to repeat their Thomas Crown Affair success from last year. What they have, though, is more akin to their Val Kilmer-starrer At First Sight. That reviled sop-fest opened to $7.3 million in January 1999, seeing just $22.4 million total.

In Autumn's favor, the only other picture to appeal specifically to the same demo this season has been What Lies Beneath, and Gere is a proven draw among it. Autumn's the first romance as well.

Tear jerking off at 2,255 theaters, an $8 million start could be in store, possibly finishing outside the top five.

Audience reaction to Hollow Man's vacuous actions hasn't been favorable. Paul Verhoeven's previous picture, the disliked Starship Troopers lost the war, plunging 55% in is second week. Teens free during the week can only exasperate Hollow Man's descent, and, as X-Men and The Klumps proved, even pictures that people enjoy can nosedive. If around 50% of Hollow's audience disappear this weekend, it would gross about $13 million, struggling with The Replacements for first.

The ad campaign for Space Cowboys is finally taking off, featuring the stars more prominently and more snippets of their banter. Throw in positive word-of-mouth and an older audience that doesn't necessarily rush out on the first weekend, and Clint Eastwood and the crew could abate by just 30% to around $12 million, possibly even out-gunning their fellow sophomores.

Coyote Ugly's a dive this weekend. It dropped 19% last Saturday instead of the usual bump-up. Disconcerting, as only specifically teen-appeal pictures tend to do that during the summer. Add some mixed word-of-mouth, and these $45 million buxom barmaids could spring a leak, splashing silicone and collagen all over uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer. A 45% dip would give them around $9.5 million.

On the same frame last year, The Sixth Sense phenomenon became fully apparent as it declined by just 3% in its second outing to $25.8 million and the top spot. Bowfinger bowed in second place with $18.1 million from 2,706 theaters. The highly anticipated Eddie Murphy/Steve Martin teaming reached a disappointing $66.5 million total. Brokedown Palace, the teen Midnight Express, was sentenced to ninth place and $3.9 million opening, $10.1 million total. KISS flick, Detroit Rock City, got dissed with just $2 million and 13th place, managing $4.2 million total.

No, Hollow Man isn't the Jerry Bruckheimer story, but it did keep the uber-producer's latest edition of Short Attention Span Theater Coyote Ugly at bay, while Clint Eastwood kicked it old school with a solid debut.

For the ninth weekend in a row, a new release topped the chart as the invisible man thriller scored a conspicuous $26.4 million from 2,956 theaters. The $26.8 million estimate did not hold, so The Sixth Sense's $26.7 million remains the best August debut ever. Nonetheless, Hollow Man marks a career bests for Kevin Bacon in a leading role and director Paul Verhoeven, though Total Recall would still be tops in ticket sales. Mixed word-of-mouth and the front loaded nature of its horror genre could cause audiences to disappear at a rate similar to the director's own Starship Troopers though.

The Nutty Professor II deflated by a stunning 57% to $18.2 million and $76.7 million to date. A precipitous drop was in store for the saturation sequel, but this was far greater than anyone expected, slipping on par with X-Men to be the steepest of the season among major releases. Even fellow low brow comedy Scary Movie fell a comparably leggy 38% in its second frame. At this rate, The Klumps will have trouble surpassing the original's $128.8 million total.

Space Cowboys rocketed to third place on the strength of its John Glenn inspired high concept and prodigious star power despite a soft ad campaign seemingly hell bent on squelching it before take-off. With a rousing $18.1 million from 2,805 theaters, it's the best opening gross of Eastwood's career, though Unforgiven and In the Line of Fire sold more tickets. An older skewing audience and favorable word of mouth should allow Cowboys to orbit in the top ten for some time.

Coyote Ugly shaked that moneymaker to $17.3 million from 2,653 theaters. A reported 55% of the audience was female, and half was under 21. Other than part of the trailer, what aspect of the ad campaign appealed to women anyway? The commercials were simply hot chicks getting ogled. Then again, teen girls did contribute to making such scantily clad ditzes as Britney Spears multi-platinum sellers.

Not boding well for Bruckheimer's buxom barmaids' longevity was a 19% drop on a Saturday instead of the usual bump up, especially ominous for a picture that doesn't exclusively appeal to teens. Furthermore, its production budget was a reported $45 million, rather high considering the lack of stars or special effects other than airbrushing. Throw in the massive marketing costs from an incessant ad campaign, and profitability could elude the uber-producer this time around.

What Lies Beneath slipped 39% to $13.8 million, apparently losing some of the date crowd to Hollow Man and Coyote Ugly and the older audience to Space Cowboys. With $95.1 million amassed so far though, it should creep past the $100 million mark no later than Thursday, making it the tenth picture of the year to do so.

In general, instead of the marketplace expanding, holdovers suffered massive declines, greater than they have been accustomed to. In addition to the Nutty drop, Scary Movie, The Perfect Storm and The Patriot each lost approximately half their audiences, while the rest of the wide releases took hits in the 40% range.

The three strong debuts weren't enough to boost overall business. The top 12 pictures totaled $118.3 million, down 3% from last weekend and down 14% from the same frame last year when The Sixth Sense led an expanding marketplace with $26.7 million. On the other hand, the total from the three new releases this weekend was greater than the five new releases from that frame, $61.8 million vs. $59.2 million.

Next weekend again finds three demographically compatible pictures entering the marketplace. MGM hopes to appeal to adult women in the same way that they did with The Thomas Crown Affair last August. Too bad it's the soppily titled Autumn in New York, which could beat Scary Movie in grossness, not grosses, with its Richard Gere/Winona Ryder coupling. Chosen one thriller Bless the Child hopes to capitalize on its similarities to The Sixth Sense. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves hopes to "whoa" audiences with the football comedy The Replacements and prove that he's worth his $15 million paycheck outside of Matrix sequels.

Bludgeoning moviegoers with just one picture this summer wasn't enough for uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer. After Gone in 60 Seconds and with his trademark quick cuts, orange-filtered sheen and inane premises in tow, he unleashes Coyote Ugly, a blatant attempt to repeat his first blockbuster success Flashdance.

In addition to referring to the real life bar, the term Coyote Ugly is said to refer to getting drunk, sleeping with someone that looked hot at the time, and then the next morning discovering the ugly truth. The picture will no doubt live up its title then. Men lured in by Pied Piper Perabo and the other buxom barmaids will be sorely disappointed, not only by how bad the picture is, but by the lack of the promised debauchery that the PG-13 rating won't permit. It's Showgirls sans nudity.

What little plot there is suggests chick flick, but with eye candy thrown in to keep the guys interested. However, the ad campaign is just a barrage of that eye candy with nary a hint of story and with clips flashing by so quickly that the only way that characters are distinguished is through such cliche tags as "The Dreamer" or "The Flame." Guys are certainly transfixed by the gyrations of Tyra Banks and crew. However, since it's all about ogling, they're not liable to take their dates to it. Besides, they can get similar action for free on MTV. After all, the campaign, and the picture itself no doubt, is just a derivative music video set to a melange of decade old songs, mostly one hit wonders like "Unbelievable." They even have the gall to use "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" from another bar-set picture Urban Cowboy.

In its quest to appeal to everyone, it should appeal to no one. In a way, it reminds one of a bomb from last year, For Love of the Game, which was hoping to be a hit by combining a soppy love story for the women and baseball for the men. It opened to $13 million and struck out with $35.2 million. A genre analog would be Striptease, which opened to $12.3 million in the summer of 1996. It shed its business as quickly as its clothes, reaching just $33.2 million total.

Audience tracking may have it at a competitive level, but that's more due to the incessant commercials than any firm committal on their part. Shaking its booty at 2,650 joints, Coyote Ugly's opening shouldn't be too pretty. Say the low-to-mid teen range and fifth place.

The ads for Space Cowboys have been rather subdued, geriatric even, with a muted and muddled sound mix rendering the voiceover, dialogue and John Glenn inspired premise nearly unintelligible and certainly indistinguishable. The slogan "Boys will be boys" appears, flaming, shaking, doing its darnedest to make people think this is Armageddon. Until recently, the stars weren't even mentioned. Rather odd, given that it's not merely Grumpy Old Men in space. It's Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones in space.

Thinking of Eastwood's recent pictures, the word that springs to mind is "leisurely." Perhaps this style made it difficult for pulse-pounding and punchy ads to be made. His past few summer releases have been big hits though. Those include In the Line of Fire and The Bridges of Madison County, while Unforgiven opened to $15 million on this same weekend back in 1992.

Launching at 2,805 theaters, Space Cowboys could open to around $15 million, finishing in fourth place. If it does much better, it will be no thanks to the anti-climactic ad campaign.

That leaves Hollow Man as the only new release with a shot at dethroning The Klumps. With kinky Dutch director Paul Verhoeven of Showgirls infamy at the helm, the title could be a wink-wink at the audience, acknowledging how empty and derivative this invisible man flick is. The audience won't likely care, as money shots abound, including the one where Kevin Bacon disappears layer by layer. What's more, the ad campaign has effectively played up two saleable and creepy themes, one about fearing what one can't see and the other tapping into what many would like to do if they were invisible themselves.

Though What Lies Beneath was the first horror picture of the season and is still a formidable contender in the marketplace, it appeals more to older audiences. Hollow Man is a different kind of scare, more of the creature feature, jump-at-you kind, skewing younger. Its steel blue color scheme is even reminiscent of Deep Blue Sea, which opened about the same time last year to $19.1 million. In fact, that period proved that several movies of the same genre could co-exist without cannibalizing each other as The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project and other horror pictures each did tremendous business.

Appearing at 2,956 theaters, Hollow Man could fill around $25 million worth of seats for the top spot.

The Nutty Professor II had a massive $42.5 million opening last weekend. The fatter they are the harder they tend to fall, especially when they're sequels and saturation releases. On a crash diet, The Klumps could lose about 45% of its weight to a gross in the low-to-mid twenty million range and second place. Meanwhile, What Lies Beneath's grip on its target audience abated by just 23% last weekend to $22.9 million. Another strong hold would give it around $16 million and third place.

On the same frame last year, the five new releases ran the gamut. There was the blockbuster, The Sixth Sense with $26.7 million from just 2,161 theaters. The solid hit, The Thomas Crown Affair with $14.6 million. The big-budget dud, Mystery Men with $10 million. The family flop, The Iron Giant with $5.7 million. And the blip, Dick with $2.2 million. The Blair With Project and Runaway Bride further contributed to the busy marketplace with $24.3 and $20.8 million respectively.