The Phantom Menace held up strongly on Sunday, dropping only 10%. To put that into perspective, the average family picture drops 25-35%, while older skewing pictures tend to drop even more. With this excellent hold, the actual weekend tally ended up being $64.8 million, $3 million more than the estimate.

For any other picture, this gross would be widely considered extraordinary. But because it's Star Wars… well, the picture needed to break every damn record out there to satisfy the hype machine. It didn't. It ended the weekend $7.3 million shy of The Lost World's $72.1 million record.

Let's review the records that Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace did set:

• Opening day gross (5/19 - $28,542,349)
• Single day gross (5/19 - $28,542,349)
• Five day gross (5/19-23 - $105,661,237)
• Fastest to $100 million (5/19-23 - Five days)
• Non-holiday weekend gross (5/21-23 - $64,810,970)

And, let's face it, had the picture opened on a Friday it would have handily broken The Lost World's record as well.

The Lost World opened on Memorial Day weekend two years ago, so its Sunday essentially behaved like a second Saturday. It also played at 311 more theaters.

On the other hand, The Phantom Menace was one of the most anticipated pictures of all time. How could opening a couple of days earlier affect its weekend, unless, god forbid, the media was blowing things out of proportion and it really wasn't THAT anticipated after all? Well, for one, it probably wasn't. As I reported earlier, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi sold only a little more than half the tickets of the original Star Wars if you adjust for inflation. What's more, the insane media coverage emphasized how sold out the picture would be, which probably deterred many of the non-die hard fans from seeing it opening weekend. Another factor probably was word-of-mouth. Reactions have been rather subdued aside from the die hards who were determined to love this picture no matter what.

At any rate, with a production budget of $115 million and a minimalist marketing campaign, this will become one of the few pictures to profit in its domestic theatrical run. Ancillary grosses will not only be the frosting, but a whole other cake.

Meanwhile, the date crowd decided to wait for Notting Hill as Dreamworks' The Love Letter didn't send many hearts aflutter, making only $2.7 million from 769 theaters. The strategy was to be counter-programming to Star Wars. Not a bad one actually. In fact, this David vs. Goliath scheme gave the picture more publicity than it would have received otherwise. I bet on any other weekend it would have made even less, as it was destined to bomb anyway.

The Phantom Menace plummeted 56.9% on its second day, giving it a two-day total of $40,850,267. This drop was considerably greater than expected and calls into question whether demand and word-of-mouth are strong enough to beat The Lost World's opening weekend record of $72.1 million. Worst case scenario appears to be the following: A 50% rise on Friday to $18.5 million, another 50% rise to $27 on Saturday, and then a 30% drop to $19.5 on Sunday, for a weekend tally of $65 million.

The records for opening day and single day grosses have been shattered. Phantom Menace racked up its $28.5 million from 2,970 theaters, averaging $9,610 per theater. This beats Lost World's opening day record by $6.9 million and its single day record by $2.4 million.

What makes this achievement even more impressive is that it did it on a weekday, when school is still in session, and at 311 fewer theaters than Lost World. To put this astronomical opening further into perspective, this single day gross nearly matches Titanic's $28.6 million opening weekend.

I haven't discussed this on the site yet, because I'm not one to contribute to the overkill of hype, and because it has been obvious from the get-go that this picture will pretty much sell out on its opening weekend.

The only question mark has been the number of theaters. The last I heard was 2,950 theaters and possibly 4,000 to 5,000 screens as it seems George Lucas and Fox have decided to gun for the opening weekend record held by The Lost World.

That picture racked up $72,132,785 Friday-Sunday at about the same period two years ago. It played at 3,281 theaters and on over 6,000 screens, making it's per theater average $21,985 and per screen average about $12,000.

If Star Wars plays at 2,950 theaters, it should handily break that record. Variety reported that there would be seven million seats available per day. Assuming six showings a day, that amounts to about 395 seats per showing per theater. Since this picture is obviously more anticipated than The Lost World was, let's assume it will get a conservative 85% capacity. Average ticket price should be around five dollars, due to the kid appeal. Factor this altogether, and it could make around $90 million Friday-Sunday ($135 million first five days). Then again, that is if the Variety figure is correct.

Now, will it beat Titanic's $600.8 million total gross? Doubtful. Consider this. Though the original Star Wars made around $800 million if you adjust for inflation, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi made $432 and $414 million respectively. These totals were also from multiple releases, including the Special Editions. Furthermore, if this picture is more about set-up for the trilogy rather than standing on its own, as reports suggest, then that should prove to limit repeat business beyond the devoted fans.

With The Phantom Menace looming, The Mummy fell an unexpected 43% to $24.9 million. Still, it has accumulated $80.6 million in just ten days. In comparison, Deep Impact also dropped 43% in its second week and had a $74 million ten-day total.

My suspicions over A Midsummer Night's Dream's potential were confirmed, as it only managed to gross $4.3 million, similar to Les Miserables' $5.0 million last May. Intended as counter-programming like The Horse Whisperer was on this weekend last year, a small marketing campaign and low media coverage combined with mixed reviews kept it from breaking out. However, the picture did have a low enough budget to at least break even in the long run.

Black Mask and Trippin' both held up well over the weekend for niche releases, making $4.4 and $2.5 million respectively. Trippin' had a notable Saturday build over Friday of 51%, while Black Mask had the lowest Sunday decline of the top ten.

Life took in $2.9 million, down only 20%. Now, how does a picture that has been consistently dropping more than 40% a week suddenly sprout legs? By adding grosses from a sneak preview. In this case, Universal stable mate Notting Hill played in Life's place Saturday night at most of its 856-theater sneak. With a reported 90% attendance, it probably added as much as $600,000 to Life's gross.

And I'm beginning to think that I'm the only one who cares. I'm talking about A Midsummer Night's Dream, of course. This may well be a case where I let my desire to see the picture cloud my judgment of its box office potential. For despite the lavish theater displays and tantalizing trailers, the picture is shaping up to be a non-event.

Opening at only 1,080 theaters, Fox seems to have given up on it, just as they did with Pushing Tin a few weeks earlier. Though with a reported budget of only $13.5 million, they won't take quite the bath they did with that one.

The reviews have been mixed at best. Normally, that wouldn't matter, but this is the sort of picture that needs positive notices to gain attention from its intended adult demographic. After all, indifference, as Pushing Tin proved, is the death knell at the box office. It's too late to change my bullish $7.3 million prediction though.

Meanwhile, Black Mask and Trippin' get modest releases to promote their video debuts.

Raking in $43.4 million, The Mummy performed well above expectations. Though it ended up with $1.3 million less than Universal estimated, it's still the ninth largest opening weekend of all time. The picture should also dominate until the release of… you know.

Forget about the curse of The Mummy. What about the Curse of Universal Pictures? Meet Joe Black, Babe: Pig in the City, Psycho '98, Virus, Ed TV, et cetera ad nauseum. Now that's scary.

Much like biblical times, a flood of red ink has engulfed the studio, drowning many an indulgent executive.*

How do they throw themselves a line? Do what they always do: rest on their laurels and remake a classic. In this case, Universal raided its own horror library to remake 1932's The Mummy. Of course, the 1999 version has to be "bigger and better" so they threw in tons more visual effects and more than 30 minutes running time to boot. The marketing campaign invokes recent hits though. The trailer makes it look like Bram Stoker's Dracula in Egypt, while the TV commercials try to make you think Indiana Jones. Opening at a whopping 3,210 theaters, this horror/adventure combo should prove to be potent at the box office (especially before the release of…you know). However, with a production/marketing cost of around $110 million, profit will elude the studio for quite some time.

Meanwhile, Election expands to 827 theaters this weekend. Paramount has had one hell of a time trying to figure out what to do with it. After all, this picture looks like it's geared towards teenagers with its high school setting and mostly young cast. Yet it has an R rating limiting their access to it. Having seen it, I can confirm that it is really a movie for adults. Then again, adults aren't going to be interested because it looks like a movie for the kids. This is the same quandary that Go faced, and it tanked. Notice how, in the commercials, Paramount really doesn't feature any dialogue from the movie, and how they feebly emphasize "adult" with the critic quotes.

It's now just a handful of days until 20^th Century Fox finally releases the picture we've all been anticipating for such a long time. When The Trailer came out late last year, I was really jazzed. Then the second Trailer came out and got me even more excited. I can't wait to see this picture. I don't think I need to say it, but I'm obviously talking about A Midsummer Night's Dream. It would have been neat though if it were actually coming out mid-summer rather than late spring.

* Note to Universal: I'm here for you. If you want to get out of this slump, contact me. We'll work something out.

The lesson to be learned from this past weekend? Never underestimate the power of the booty shot. Spandex-clad Catherine Zeta-Jones slunk her way underneath that laser beam and the trap was set. Audiences fell for it like mice to cheese.

Of course, Entrapment had the weekend to itself, but this is a traditionally slow time at the box office, the calm before the summer storm. Nobody makes money on this weekend. Ah, but this was the first adult date picture in a long time. The star power of Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones promised audiences a sexy battle of the wits and was enough to overcome the shortcomings of the cheesy ad campaign and of the picture itself. Hell, this picture looked like a relic of the early 80's with its soft focus camera and tired plot.

Entrapment snared $20.1 million over the weekend. However, that's $600,000 less than Fox's lofty estimate, and the picture can hardly be called successful yet. Fox invested around $100 million in production and marketing costs, so it should take a while for them to break even.

Meanwhile, things got back to normal in the teeny bopper genre as Idle Hands tanked just like this sort of picture used to. Oh, those were the days! I would like this picture's pathetic $1.8 million take to be a definite sign that the teeny bopper fad is just about over, but this movie did look incredibly awful.

Pushing Tin went down in flames, plunging 65%. Fox is bathing in red ink on this one as the picture cost around $45 million to produce and market and will wind up with around $7 million domestic. International prospects look bleak as well. To be fair, Fox did abandon it shortly before it opened. Also, Entrapment was more dominant than expected in the adult demographic.

Election had another strong performance in limited release, taking in $245,582 after expanding to 14 theaters. That's a $17,542 per theater average. The picture finally goes wide this Friday.