Celeb News Aggregate
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News, Sept. 10: Dixie Chicks Slam Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arnie's Ex Writes a Memoir, Simon and Garfunkel Reunite for Tour Colin Farrell Cameron Diaz Jennifer Lopez Phantom of the Opera Minnie Driver Miranda Richardson Howard Stern.
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Day 7 at Cannes Philip Seymour Hoffman Jack Nicholson David Cronenberg Ralph Fiennes
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A rich "Parents" opening turned the box office green after two months of lackluster grosses.
Universal's PG-13-rated comedy "Meet the Parents" met with greater success than insiders had anticipated. Rather than the $18-22 million range that many Hollywood handicappers were expecting, "Parents" opened to a sizzling ESTIMATED $29.11 million at 2,614 theaters ($11,135 per theater).
"Parents'" international release is through DreamWorks Pictures, which co-financed the film and will share equally in its success. "Parents" had the highest per-theater average for any film playing in wide release last weekend.
The film set records as the biggest October opening ever and the biggest openings ever for its stars Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, according to a Universal spokesman. It is Universal's fourth consecutive film to open in first place, following "Nutty Professor II:
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With "Parents" meeting "Titans" there will be brisk action on the box office playing field and a close race for top honors.
"It will be close," an insider promises. "Even though 'Remember the Titans' is expanding, they're bringing in a lot of small markets and there's got to be, at least, a 15% drop. Let's put it at $17 million. I think 'Meet the Parents' has a good chance of being number one. It could be $18 million, or it could more than $20 million if the marketplace expands."
The last two weekends saw key films - those grossing $500,000 or more for three days - do a very lean $56-57 million. "The question is," asks this insider, "Will the marketplace expand considerably? Can this be a $70 million weekend (for key films)?"
Universal's PG-13-rated comedy "Meet the Parents" will arrive in 2,612 theaters. The film should play to a broad audience, attracting both y
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SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 6, 2000 -- "Scary Movie" has a good shot at scaring up this weekend's biggest grosses.
"I think it's going to open to north of $20 million, maybe $25 million," a studio executive speculates in view of its 27 percent overall first-choice tracking. "It's going to be between 'Scary Movie' and 'Perfect Storm' for first place. Both could be in the mid-twenties, but 'Scary Movie' could take it."
"It skews very high for the under 25 group," another insider adds. "It's 43 percent first choice for males and 45 percent for females. So it's obviously young teenagers. It could open to $25-30 million."
The R-rated teen appeal comedy from Miramax's Dimension Films label combines gross-out comedy with a spoof of classic horror flicks. It is opening very wide; Dimension was still doing its final tabulations, but insiders figure it will go into 2,800-plu
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"Scary Movie" has a good shot at scaring up this weekend's biggest grosses.
"I think it's going to open to north of $20 million, maybe $25 million," a studio executive speculates in view of its 27% overall first-choice tracking. "It's going to be between 'Scary Movie' and 'Perfect Storm' for first place. Both could be in the mid-twenties, but 'Scary Movie' could take it."
"It skews very high for the under 25 group," another insider adds. "It's 43% first choice for males and 45% for females. So it's obviously young teenagers. It could open to $25-30 million."
The R-rated teen appeal comedy from Miramax's Dimension Films label combines gross-out comedy with a spoof of classic horror flicks. It is opening very wide; Dimension was still doing its final tabulations, but insiders figure it will go into 2,800-plus theaters.
Directed by Keenan Ivory
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The weekend's biggest gross went to Jim Carrey's gross-out comedy "Me, Myself & Irene."
20th Century Fox's opening of the R-rated "Irene" easily captured first place with a high-speed ESTIMATED $24.16 million at 3,016 theaters ($8,012 per theater).
"Irene's" per theater average was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.
Directed by Peter & Bobby Farrelly ("There's Something About Mary"), "Irene" stars Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger.
"It's the highest-grossing R-rated comedy original ever released. The highest one (R-rated comedy) was 'Beverly Hills Cop 2,' which was a sequel and did $33 million," Tom Sherak, 20th Domestic Film Group chairman and senior executive vice president of Fox Filmed Entertainment, said Sunday morning.
Looking at the studio's Friday night exit polls, Sherak said, "The audience was 50% m
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Jim Carrey should be the personality splitting most of this weekend's box office.
Carrey and 20th Century Fox's R-rated comedy "Me, Myself & Irene," about a schizoid Rhode Island motorcycle cop, should speed into first place at 3,016 theaters with about $25 million.
"Among opening and released films, it has a 27% first choice," explains an insider. "It's 36% for males under 25 and 20% for males over 25. It's 31% for females under 25 and 23% for females over 25. So it's definitely young males."
A $25 million launch, this source says, "isn't the 'Liar Liar' opening, but I don't think it has the heat that 'Liar Liar' had." That Jim Carrey comedy opened via Universal to $31.4 million the weekend of March 21-23, 1997.
Should Fox be unhappy with a $25 million opening? "No," replies this insider. "$25 million is a huge opening. Who would be unhappy w
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Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" and George Clooney's "The Perfect Storm" should spark big box office fireworks this weekend.
"Patriot," the R-rated period piece drama from Columbia Pictures and Centropolis Entertainment, marched into 3,061 theaters Wednesday. It grossed an encouraging estimated $5.0 million ($1,633 per theater) in its first skirmishes with moviegoers.
"Patriot's" overall first-choice tracking of 26% has most insiders predicting it will win the five-day battle that ends with the Fourth of July holiday. After its $5 million start, it could wind up with a first place finish of $30 million or more for three days (Friday-Sunday) and $40 million or more for five days (Wednesday-Sunday).
"If you extrapolate from other performances on this kind of holiday, it could very well get to $30 million," a studio source explains. "It's a 2 hour 40 minute
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SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 29, 2000 -- Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" and George Clooney's "The Perfect Storm" should spark big box office fireworks this weekend.
"Patriot," the R-rated period piece drama from Columbia Pictures and Centropolis Entertainment, marched into 3,061 theaters Wednesday. It grossed an encouraging estimated $5.0 million ($1,633 per theater) in its first skirmishes with moviegoers.
"Patriot's" overall first-choice tracking of 26 percent has most insiders predicting it will win the five-day battle that ends with the Fourth of July holiday. After its $5 million start, it could wind up with a first place finish of $30 million or more for three days (Friday-Sunday) and $40 million or more for five days (Wednesday-Sunday).
"If you extrapolate from other performances on this kind of holiday, it could very well get to $30 million," a studio source exp
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SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 2, 2000 -- "Storm" clouds unexpectedly dominated the July Fourth weekend box office skies, raining on what was expected to be Mel Gibson's parade.
Nonetheless, there was plenty of room in the holiday marketplace for both Warner Bros.' "The Perfect Storm" and Columbia and Centropolis Entertainment's "The Patriot" to do blockbuster business. "Storm" made big waves with ticket sales of nearly $42 million, while "Patriot" marched ahead, grossing nearly $22 million with very encouraging exit polls.
Despite expectations based on tracking scores that "Patriot" would capture the top spot, it was "Storm" that won the battle with an estimated $41.68 million at 3,407 theaters ($12,234 per theater). Its cume for the five days ending with July Fourth should be about $63 million.
"Storm's" per-theater average was the highest for any film playing in wi
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"Shaft" was the man this weekend, easily stealing first place at the box office from "Gone in 60 Seconds."
Paramount's R-rated urban appeal remake kicked off to a muscular ESTIMATED $21.1 million at 2,337 theaters ($9,029 per theater).
"Shaft's" per-theater average was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.
"It's great. It's a good opening," Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning.
"We're very pleased with it, obviously. Early on, we thought it would be $18-22 million, so it fell right in the range that we were looking at, and it's a little bit on the high side of it."
Asked who the film's audience was, Lewellen noted, "I haven't seen the exit polls yet. I think it must have played young, at least that's what our research told us up front. Young males are the primary audience. The p