Oscars Give Box Office Boost

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Thursday, February 24, 2000

PITCH BLACK was the Number One film at the box office on the long President's Day weekend, but equally interesting was the boost that Oscar nominations provided for several films, including AMERICAN BEAUTY, THE GREEN MILE, and THE SIXTH SENSE. All three of those films increased their take compared to the previous weekend, and BEAUTY even climbed back into the Top Ten, reaching the Number Six postion with $6.6-million, brining its cume to $81.4-million.

Also in the Top Ten: In its debut weekend, PITCH BLACK earned $13.47-million, a bit short of estimates but good enough for fourth place. In fifth, THE TIGGER MOVIE took in $10.6-million, for a total of $22.4-million. SCREAM 3 dropped to sixth place, bringing its cume to $71.4 with a $9.88-million weekend take.

THE GREEN MILE landed in the eleven position, but its $3.23-million performance was actually a 5% improvement over the previous weekend; its total is $128.7-million. Without the benefit of Oscar noms (it won't be eligible until next year), FANTASIA 2000 also increased its income, by an impressive 38%; it took in $2.34-million, adding up to a total of $24.43--all in limited engagement, ending up at lucky number thirteen overall.

STUART LITTLE dropped 19% and ended up in the fourteenth slot. Nevertheless, it's $2.2-million performance brought its total up to an impressive $134.79-million. In the Number Sixthen slot, THE SIXTH SENSE increased its earnings by 73%, pulling in an additional $1.93-million and expanding its total to 282-million. GALAXY QUEST fell 26%, landing at Number Seventeen; the film earned $1.62-million for a total of 67.99-million.


Complete figures for the weekend's top genre performers are given below. As always, amounts are in millions of dollars.

Pitch Black (4) 13.47/13.47
The Tigger Movie (5) 10.6/22.399
Scream 3 (6) 9.88/71.43
American Beauty (9) 6.60/81.42
The Green Mile (11) 3.24/128.7
Fantasia 2000 (13) 2.34/24.43
Stuart Little (14) 2.20/134.79
The Sixth Sense (16) 1.93/282.005
Galaxy Quest (17) 1.62/67.99
Toy Story 2 (19) .942/239.93
Being John Malkovich (32) .243/21.76
The World Is Not Enough (35) .220/126.22
Sleepy Hollow (37) .198/98.29
End of Days (42) .163/66.60
The Bone Collector (43) .162/66.23
Bicentennial Man (45) .118/57.37
Titus (50) .094/1.15
Supernova (55) .080/13.96
Pokemon: The First Movie (58) .066/85.69
Dogma (59) .056/30.48