Celeb News Aggregate
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Hollywood.saw sharp declines across the board at the box office over the post-Thanksgiving weekend as moviegoing gave way to holiday shopping.
Buena Vista/Disney and Pixar's G-rated computer-animated blockbuster "Toy Story 2" held on to first place in its third weekend with a 50% drop that reflected how most films in the marketplace performed.
"Toy 2" snapped up a still hefty estimated $28.30 million (-50%) at 3,238 theaters (+2 theaters, $8,734 per theater). Its total is approximately $117.3 million, heading for a domestic theatrical total of $250 million-plus.
"Toy 2's" per-theater average was the highest for any film playing in wide release last weekend. Directed by John Lasseter, it features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, Wayne Knight, Laurie Metcalf, Este
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'Twas the weekend before Christmas, and all through the movie house, all the kids were eager, to see the talking mouse.
As usual, movie attendance was soft during the final holiday shopping weekend of the year. The box office was dominated by two rodents: one of them the little talking mouse who stars in Columbia Pictures' G-rated "Stuart Little," the other, the ubiquitous Disney mouse, which had three films in the weekend's top five.
In its opening weekend, "Stuart Little," an adaptation of the popular, half-century-old book by E.B. White featuring the voice of Michael J. Fox as the titular creature, grossed an estimated $15.4 million in 2,878 theaters, and it had the highest per-theater average of any movie in wide release at $5,351. Although a $15 million gross won't set any records, studio officials are pleased that the film opened strong during the pre-Christmas wee
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Hollywood is expecting Warner Bros. and Castle Rock Entertainment's opening of "The Green Mile" to walk off with the most box office green this weekend.
The R-rated drama, written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tom Hanks, kicks off at more than 2,850 theaters.
"'Toy Story [2],' if it's down in the neighborhood of 35-40%, is $16-18 million. And I think 'Green Mile' beats that based on the tracking. They're sitting there with an 18% first choice right now," one studio executive said earlier this week."
"It is high," he said of the tracking results. "Although I understand the reviews are not very good, with Tom Hanks (starring), that's $20 million-plus."
While a $20 million-plus opening is certainly very attractive, it's not spectacular. One of the factors working against a bigger first weekend for the adult appeal "Green" is that adults are bu
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SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 30, 2000 -- The Super Bowl sacked Hollywood over the weekend with a gross of only about $6.2 million being enough to grab first place.
There was a close race for top honors among Destination Films' opening of its thriller "Eye Of the Beholder," Universal's Oscar contender "The Hurricane" and New Line's urban-appeal comedy sequel "Next Friday." As always, Monday's actual numbers could reverse today's estimated results.
Although Destination's "Eye" appeared to have the weekend's best score with about $6.2 million, it was not an impressive one.
"There was no No. 1 film in 1999 lower than $9 million," one studio distribution president said Sunday morning, looking back at the record books. "That was 'The Best Man' (the weekend of) Oct. 22-24, 1999, with $9.03 million. In 1998, the lowest-grossing No. 1 film was 'He Got Game' (the weekend of)