Weekend Box Office
Box office for Scary Movie was just plain scary. The gross-out comedy grossed $42.3 million, similar to Big Daddy's $41.5 million last summer. Spoofing such horror hits as Scream and The Sixth Sense and just about everything else, the $19 million picture played at 2,912 theaters averaging $14,542, unifying teenagers like no other picture has yet this season.
It's the best opening for an R-rated picture ever besting Air Force One's $37.1 million, though, adjusted for inflation, Interview with the Vampire is still tops with about $44 million. It also out-grossed the lofty $32.9 and $34.7 million openings of the last two Scream pictures. Kind of odd when the spoof is more popular than what it spoofs which was a spoof itself to begin with. Furthermore, the opening is the best in Miramax's history, the second best of the year behind Mission: Impossible 2's $57.8 million and the fifteenth best of all time.
Pretty good for the legion of Wayans Bros., who were practically has-beens after a number of canceled sitcoms, dwindling box office and collect call commercials.
The Sixth Sense connection wasn't as potent for Bruce Willis and moppet though. The $60 million Kid opened to a respectable $12.7 million from 2,167 theaters, less than half of Sense's $26.7 million from about the same number of theaters. Despite the high concept and prime summer slot, the sentimental comedy could not even beat the opening for Willis' last picture, The Whole Nine Yards with $13.7 million. Still, The Kid should stay in the picture long enough to be modestly successful.
The Perfect Storm abated by a modest 35% to $27.1 million, blowing past the century mark in just ten days. The $140 million disaster picture marks George Clooney's first blockbuster as headliner and has an outside shot at hitting $200 million.
The Patriot stood firm, down 31% from its disappointing opening to $15.4 million. With $65.5 million in the till so far, the $110-million Revolutionary War epic could at least match its budget.
In addition to Scary Movie, another surprisingly successful urban comedy reached a milestone this weekend. Martin Lawrence cross-dressed his way past the century mark for the first time in his career, as Big Momma's House consumed $4.1 million, reaching $103.6 million after six weeks.
Mission: Impossible 2 became the first picture of the year to cross the $200 million threshold. It fell out of the top ten for the first time with $3.3 million, bringing the total to $204 million after seven weeks.
The gravity-defying Gladiator enjoyed the strongest hold of the weekend, down just 18% to $2 million and $174.0 million after ten weeks. The Roman epic is on track to finish with about $185 million, and has already surpassed its domestic total overseas.
The top 12 pictures amassed $137 million, up nine percent over last weekend and up 27 percent over the same frame last year when another raunchy comedy, American Pie, topped the chart with $18.7 million en route to $102.1 million total.
