Weekend Box Office
One thing that 1999 has shown is that competition from other movies is one of the more overrated factors in a movie's success or failure. For example, this weekend saw two movies, The World is Not Enough and Sleepy Hollow, open to over $30 million each, a first. However, this weekend also saw the rare occasion when competition came into play as just about every other movie wilted underneath those two blockbusters, dropping as much as 65%. This suggests that the others were making money by default, then when something exciting finally came out, they were abandoned.
James Bond starred in his 19th movie on the 19th of November and if MGM's highly optimistic $37.2 million estimate was right he would have had the 19th largest opening of all time too. Instead, The World is Not Enough tallied a still phenomenal $35,519,007, ranking #24 on the all time list. This marks the biggest opening in MGM's history and the biggest opening for a Bond picture, besting Goldeneye by a whopping $9.3 million. Aside from an aggressive ad campaign and 3,163 theater release, World also benefited from being the first big action picture in a long time and from being the first event picture of the season. An odd coincidence is that all three Pierce Brosnan Bonds have had opening weekends ending in 007. Goldeneye opened to $26,205,007 in 1995 and Tomorrow Never Dies opened to $25,143,007 in 1997. This suggests some figure fudging on the part of MGM and/or Exhibitor Relations in the name of fun.
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have had a mid-sized hit, Edward Scissorhands, and a bomb, Ed Wood, together. Now they have a blockbuster as their third collaboration, Sleepy Hollow, grossed $30.1 million from 3,064 theaters this weekend. And, boy, with the way their careers had been going lately and with a $70 million budget, they really needed it. This marks Depp's first blockbuster ever, as he's only had two other bonafide hits this decade (Scissorhands and Donnie Brasco) and many bombs (Nick of Time, The Astronaut's Wife, etc.).
Pokemon tumbled 60% to $12.5 million and a $67.4 million total, making its prospects of hitting the $100 million mark unlikely without studio manipulation. It's funny how most other box office "experts" thought that this would hold up reasonably well. Some even discounted Sleepy Hollow altogether, as if the race was between Pokemon and James Bond alone (such as Access Hollywood did). But it was obvious from its pattern that most of the kids who wanted to see it already did the first few days, so a precipitous drop was inevitable.
The Bone Collector certainly had that "hit by default" aura to it. Since more exciting fare came out, it stumbled an estimated 46% to $6.5 million, versus its 28% drop last weekend.
The good news for Dogma is that it became Kevin Smith's highest grossing picture this weekend. The bad news is that it plummeted 53% from its strong opening to $4.1 million, true to its niche nature. Since the budget was kept relatively low, it could eventually break even though.
The Messenger, on the other hand, was very expensive, reportedly costing $60 million to produce. It plunged a whopping 64% to $2.3 million. A big drop was expected as it actually lost business on its first Saturday (when most movies gain), but this was spectacular. It should perform respectably overseas given Luc Besson's stature as the "Spielberg of France," but it looks as though they'll be seeing more red than they did in the picture's battle scenes.
Meanwhile, Toy Story 2 opened at the El Capitan in Hollywood and grossed a whopping $300,163. It should be noted however, that that includes a stage show and that each ticket costs around $15.
Overall box office was up 8% over last weekend and up 33% over the same weekend last year when The Rugrats Movie and Enemy of the State topped the chart with $27.3 and $20.0 million respectively.
