record was Remember the Titans with $20.9 million (via Buena Vista at 1,865 theaters the weekend of Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2000) and also became his largest grossing film at $115 million (in domestic theaters). This is the largest October opening in Warner history."
Training, Fellman added," performed extremely well in all markets with the largest grosses coming from major urban areas -- New York, L.A., Detroit, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, Atlanta. The demographics were about 48 percent male and 52 percent female, of which 75 percent were 25 and older. All segments had excellent reactions to the film."
What accounts for the film's strong opening? "I think it really has to be credited to excellent reviews, Denzel's performance and the direction of Antoine Fuqua," Fellman replied. "We're very happy. It's terrific."
Warners originally planned to release Training on Sept. 21, but moved it to Oct. 5 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those attacks resulted in the networks pre-empting regular television programming and advertising for days in order to provide wall-to-wall crisis news coverage.
"We needed the time to promote the film and we obviously had to make an adjustment in our release schedule," Fellman explained. "This turned out to be a great date and we made the right choice."
Miramax's PG-13 rated romantic comedy Serendipityarrived in second place to an engaging ESTIMATED $14.0 million at 2,601 theaters ($5,382 per theater).
Directed by Peter Chelsom, it stars John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.
"It's off to a great start," Miramax senior vice president, marketing David Kaminow, said Sunday morning. "I think the sneaks (last Friday and Saturday nights) definitely helped set us up for this weekend because we had great word of mouth out of the sneaks and continue to (have) this weekend. We have, again, 80 percents in the Top Two Boxes and 70 percents definite recommend."