Weekend Box Office

Just when you think the horror movie has finally died for the time being, another one jumps up, nabbing the top spot and making a ton of dough. House on Haunted Hill had the biggest Halloween opening ever. It grossed $15.9 million, $800,000 higher than Warner Bros. estimated as it dropped just 28% on Sunday. A steep drop-off is in store next weekend, but the $16 million production will still be rather profitable as not much was spent to promote it.

The Best Man dropped 30% to $6.3 million, a strong hold for this genre, suggesting that it is crossing over somewhat. It's also quite a coup for Taye Diggs, who now stars in the top two pictures in the nation. Meanwhile, Music of the Heart tanked as expected, grossing just $3.7 million.

Being John Malkovich $637,721 25 It averaged a strong $25,509, but look for that to erode rapidly as it expands beyond the big cities. Princess Mononoke grossed a solid $144,446 from 8 theaters, averaging a solid $18,056. Since Miramax hasn't given it much of a push and since its opening was likely bolstered by anime fans rushing to see it, it's domestic gross will be nowhere near it's foreign success. The long shelved Legend of 1900 starring Tim Roth grossed $39,200 from 5 theaters. It's $7,840 average was rather modest and suggests it won't make it too far out of the big cities.

The most pathetic opening was by The Suburbans starring Jennifer Love-Hewitt. It bombed even worse than her new TV show, grossing $5,797 from 11 theaters for an average of just $527. These two failures are further evidence that there should be one less three-named starlet working today.

Overall box office was down about 12% from last weekend, but up about 23% from the comparable weekend last year, when Vampires topped the chart with $9.1 million.