Weekend Box Office

The $100 million spectacle Gladiator kicked off the summer movie season with an epic $34.8 million, a total that turned out to be $2.1 million greater than DreamWorks' refreshingly conservative estimate. It edged out Scream 3's $34.7 million opening, to be the mightiest of the year so far, but came in third among R-rated pictures overall behind Air Force One's $37.1 million and Interview with the Vampire's $36.4 million.

Possibly reflecting strong word-of-mouth and its 96% approval rating, Gladiator was down just 26% on Sunday when the average is generally around 40%. Sure, it fell short of the early-May, $40-million club that The Mummy, Deep Impact and Twister belong to, but those pictures had more inclusive ratings, less significant competition and broader demographic appeal. If it holds up as well as those did, it would total north of $125 million. At any rate, it should easily vanquish Battlefield: Earth next weekend.

U-571 did not take a dive in its third weekend despite the hefty competition from Gladiator. Down 36% to $7.8 million for $49.6 million to date, it held up slightly better than it did last weekend.

Meanwhile, Universal has nothing to "yabba-dabba-doo" about over The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. The $58-million dollar kid pic was down a sizable-for-its-genre 36% to $6.6 million for $18.6 million to date.

New Line's solid year continued as Frequency de-tuned by just 27% for $6.5 million and $17.9 million to date. That's a similar hold as stablemate and sleeper hit Final Destination had in its second frame, and all the more impressive given the direct competition from Gladiator.

Where the Heart Is may not be where the audience's heart is as it dropped 38% to $5.1 million, sizable for a chick flick. The total stands at $15.7 million, a good sum for Fox though, which spent just $9 million for the rights to distribute it.

I Dreamed of Africa had a nightmarish debut for Sony. The $34-million production intended as counter-programming managed just $2.4 million from 2,112 theaters.

In limited action, Up at the Villa starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn opened to a mediocre $339,819 from 89 theaters. Michael Jordan to the MAX scored $578,141 at 41 IMAX theaters. Solid debut, even in light of the $2 million weekends Fantasia 2000 was having, which ended its run last week to gear up for a wide summer release in normal theaters.

Overall box office totaled $88.3 million, up 7% over last weekend and up 2% over the same frame last year when The Mummy topped the chart with $43.4 million en route to $155.4 million total.