Box Office Bondage

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Wednesday, November 24, 1999

James Bond fell slightly short of estimates for its opening weekend box office take. MGM's THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH took in $35.5-million in its first three days, easily taking the Number 1 spot. The weekend's other wide debut, Paramount's SLEEPY HOLLOW, rode into second place with $30-million. This is the first time that two films have opened on the same weekend to grosses in excess of thirty million dollars.

The rest of the weekend box office fell far behind the two leaders. In its second weekend in release, POKEMON placed third with $12.5-million. This represented a 57% drop; neverthless, the film has cumed $67.3-million in two weeks, and seems destined to break the $100-million mark.

The weekend's other debut was an exclusive: Disney's TOY STORY 2 took in $300,000 at El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, landing in 24th. This impressive per screen showing should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, as the ticket prices reflect a stage show and amusements that accompany the screenings.

In fourth was Universal's THE BONE COLLECTOR with $6.5-million; its cume is $45.1-million. Lion's Gate's DOGMA landed in fifth with $4.-million; its $15-million total in ten days of release is the biggest ever for the distributor and for writer-director Kevin Smith.

Less heavenly was THE MESSENGER: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC, which dropped to ninth place. With $2.2-million this weekend, its total is $10.5-million so far, well behind director Luc Besson previous film, THE FIFTH ELEMENT.


BEING JOHN MALKOVICH rounded out the top ten with $1.8-million. The limited release film has amassed $.8.8-million, not bad for a quirky indie film but not quite the breakout, crossover hit that was hoped for, either.

Finally dropping out of the top ten was THE SIXTH SENSE, which earned $1.6-million for 11th place. The grand total so far is a whopping $270-million for the Buena Vista release.

In 12th was another horror film, Warners' HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. The $1.5-million weekend take boosted the total to $37-million. The only other genre-related film to earn over one million dollars was DreamWorks' AMERICAN BEAUTY: with $1.2-million, its total rose to $64.7-million.

Other genre films in release include: Providence's THE OMEGA CODE (in 18th with $780,000 for a $10.1-million total), New Line's FIGHT CLUB (in 22nd place, with $401,000 for a $34.9-million cume),IMAX's SIEGFRIED AND ROY: THE MAGIC BOX (#29, weekend: $180,000; total: $1.2-million) and T-REX: BACK TO THE CRETACEOUS (#31, $160,000; $25.8-million total), Paramount's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD (#32, $156,000; $16.2-million total), Mirmax's PRINCESS MONONOKE (#34, 142,000; $1.9-million total), Buena Vista's INSPECTOR GADGET (#35, $139,000; $97-million total),Sony's THE ADVENTURES OF ELMO IN GROUCHLAND (#47, $78,000; $11.3-million total), MGM's STIGMATA (#49, $73,000; $49.8-million total), Warners' DEEP BLUE SEA (#50, $68,000; $73.6-million total), Destination's BATS (#51, $68,000; $9.8-million total), and Warners IRON GIANT (#58, $46,000; $23.2-million total).