Genre Takes #1 Spot for 7th Straight Week

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Tuesday, August 22, 2000

For the seventh straight week, a genre film took the #1 position at the box office, in this case The Cell, which wound up with a debut of $17.52-million when the final tallies were in. Also of note, Chicken Run, the critically praised stop-motion film from Aardman Animation, crossed the $100-million mark; after nearly $903,000 this weekend, the total now stands at $101.80-million.

For the most part, the final counts came reasonably close to yesterday's studio estimates, leaving the order of the Top Ten films intact. Space Cowboys landed in 3rd place with $9.48-million, bringing its total up to $53.78-million. In 5th, What Lies Beneath added $6.76-million to its total of $123.41-million. The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps rolled into 6th place with $6.31-million, inflating its bulk to $104.29-million. Hollow Man thinned out in 7th place with $6.01-million; its total stands at $61.58-million. Rounding out the genre films in the Top Ten was the sophomore effort Bless the Child, which now has a total of $18.01-million after earning $4.84-million this weekend.

Other genre films to pull in over $1-million during the weekend were Godzilla 2000, which made its debut with $4.41-million; X-Men, which pulled in another $2.55-million, raising its total to $148.62-million; Scary Movie, which added $1.29-million to its $147.22-million total; and The Kid, which reached a total of $64.43-million after earning $1.13-million this weekend.

Below is a list of the final figures for this weekend's box office, including all films in the Top Ten, plus any other science-fiction, horror, or fantasy titles to place in the Top Sixty.

U.S. Box Office Finals 8/18 to 8/20/2000
1.	The Cell	$17.52-million/$17.52-million
2.	The Kings of Comedy	$11.05-million/$11.05-million
3.	Space Cowboys	$9.48-million/$53.78-million
4.	The Replacements	$7.22-million/$23.41-million
5.	What Lies Beneath	$6.76-million/$123.41-million
6.	Nutty Professor II	$6.31-million/$104.29-million
7.	Hollow Man	$6.01-million/&61.58-million
8.	Autumn in New York	$5.55-million/$21.05-million
9.	Coyote Ugly	$5.02-million/$43.87-million
10.	Bless the Child	$4.84-million/$18.01-million
11.	Godzilla 2000	$4.41-million/$4.41-million
12.	X-Men	$2.55-million/$148.62 -million
14.	Scary Movie	$1.29-million/$147.22-million
19.	Thomas and the Magic Railroad	$573-thousand/$14.58-million
20.	Pokemon 2000	$521-thousand/$41.92-million
25.	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle	$220-thousand /$25.03 -million
29.	Freuquency	$179-thousand/$44.44-million
30.	Cirque du Soleil Journey of Man	$170-thousand /$5.69-million
35.	Mission Impossible II	$145-thousand/$212.82 -million
37.	T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous	$140-thousand /$33.48-million
38.	Girl on the Bridge	$121-thousand/$441-thousand
44.	Alien Adventure	$75-thousand /$2.37-million
48.	Siegfried and Roy: The Magic Box	$50-thousand/$4.62-million