Post Holiday Box Office Blues

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Wednesday, December 29, 1999
Source: Daily Variety

When the final tally was in for the Friday-to-Sunday Christmas weekend, several films fell well short of studio estimates. Of course, because Christmas Day fell on Saturday, many potential viewers had Monday off, so there is a chance that many films will make up the difference with strong Monday showings.

The top two slots went to non-genre films, ANY GIVEN SUNDAY and THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY. In third by well more than a nose was Sony's STUART LITTLE, which took in $11.82-million dollars. That was about $700,000 short of the $12.5-million studio estimates, but it was still well ahead of TOY STORY 2, which landed in fourth. Disney had estimated a 1% increase in that film's take, which would have it in a tie for third, with $12.5-million, but the final result was $10.38-million, a 14% drop.

WB's THE GREEN MILE, atypical for the weekend, landed very close to it anticipated gross, earing $9.26-million for fifth place. In seventh, DreamWorks' GALAXY QUEST fell short with $7.01-million, but not nearly as short as BICENTENNIAL MAN. The Buena Vista release was supposed to land in seventh place with over $8-million but instead wound up #8, earning only $6.78-million, an 18% drop.

The weekend box office is listed below. Titles are followed by a number indicating their overall ranking. Weekend take and box office totals are then given, in millions of dollars.

Stuart Little (3)$11.82/$39.47
Toy Story 2 (4) 10.38/177.55
The Green Mile (5) 9.26/53.06

Galaxy Quest (7) 7.01/7.01
Bicentennial Man (8) 6.78/21.04
The World Is Not Enough (11) 2.71/111.28
Sleepy Hollow (12) 1.50/89.31
End of Days (13) 1.31/60.71
American Beauty (16) .322/70.04
Being John Malkovich (18) .302/17.30
The Bone Collector (19) .247/63.12
The Sixth Sense (23) .213/275.72
Dogma (24) 213/28.46
House on Haunted Hill (30) .124/40.18
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (34) .114/429.98
Pokemon: The First Movie (35) .112/83.61
T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous (36) .102/26.87
Siegfried and Roy: The Magic Box (38).074/1.90
Fight Club (43) .051/36.35
The Nutcracker (49).033/.330
The Omega Code (54) .028/12.24