LARA CROFT Raids ATLANTIS

SHREK surpasses MUMMY as top film of summer.

By Steve Biodrowski     June 19, 2001

This should go down in history as the weekend when the adolescent male fantasy outperformed the family adventure by more than two-to-one. Paramount's LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER made its debut in 1st place with $47.73-million, while Disney's latest animated film, ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE, had to settle for 2nd with $20.34-million. Also of note, 3rd-ranked SHREK, from DreamWorks, earned another $13.18-million, which boosted its total to $197.53-million, pushing it past THE MUMMY RETURNS to make it the most successful film of the summer.

TOMB RAIDER opened on just over 3,300 screens, giving it an average take of just over $14,430 per engagement. ATLANTIS was playing in slightly fewer venues, just over 3000; its per-screen average was just over $6,750. As of Tuesday morning, a poll running on our site since Friday shows that browsers prefer TOMB RAIDER by a wide margin, but not nearly as wide as the box office results would indicate; in fact, the Disney film has been steadily gaining ground. Out of 222 responses so far, 12% liked both films; 41% preferred TOMB RAIDER; and 30% preferred ATLANTIS, with the remainder not liking either film.

Meanwhile, last week's #1 film, Warners' SWORDFISH, sank to 4th place, where it added $12.73-million to its $39.78-million two-week total. Buena Vista's PEARL HARBOR dropped from 3rd to 5th position with a $9.86-million weekend and a four-week total of $160.36-millionnot bad, but not TITANIC. DreamWorks' EVOLUTION took a slide from 4th to 6th in its second week; its $6.62-million take gave it a total of $25.56-million. Sony's THE ANIMAL also dropped two places, winding up in 7th with $5.80-million; that raised its cume to $45.47-million. MGM's comedy, WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? was down from 7th to 9th place with $3.01-million, bringing its three-week total to $27.72-million. Rounding out the Top Ten was Universal's THE MUMMY RETURNS, which added $2.70-million to its grand total of $193-million after seven weeks in release.

LIMITED ENGAGEMENTS

Playing in less that four hundred theatres nationwide, New Market's mnemonic thriller MEMENTO made $733-thousand, placing it at #11 and raising its total to $18.43-million. Miramax's WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY took 14th place with $385-thousand on 220 screens, for a total of $2.54-million. Now in just over 300 second-run houses, Paramount's ALONG CAME A SPIDER added $195-thousand to its $72.75-million totalgood enough for 16th place. Already on DVD, Sony Pictures Classics' CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON is still playing in 171 theatres across the country, where it earned $113-thousand, landing it at #23 and raising its total to $127.65-million.

Rainbow's re-release of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL wound up in 43rd place. The 1975 comedy earned over $45-thousand on just four screens. Landing at #46 was Sony Pictures Classics' CIRQUE DU SOLEIL JOURNEY OF MAN. The 3D Imax film earned another $40-thousand, raising its cume to $11.27-million. Other Imax films still playing around the country include: CYBERWORLD in 51st place with nearly $31-thousand ($8.44-million total); ALIEN ADVENTURE at #62 with #13-thousand ($3.56-million total); T-REX: BACK TO THE CRETACEOUS in 66th place with just under $10-thousand ($37.22-million total); and ENCOUNTERS IN THE THIRD DIMENSION in 73rd place with $6.5-thousand ($5.47-million total).

Finally, Railto's re-release of Frederic Fellini's classic JULIET OF THE SPIRITS wound up at #80, earning just $1.5-thousand in a single engagement.