OTHER OPENINGS
This weekend also saw Miramax's Dimension Films open its PG-13 rated sci-fi thriller Impostor to a slow ESTIMATED $3.2 million at 1,870 theaters ($1,711 per theater).
Directed by Gary Fleder, it stars Gary Sinise.
SNEAK PREVIEWS
This weekend saw Buena Vista/Disney hold 960 national sneak previews Saturday night of its PG rated family comedy Snow Dogs.
Directed by Brian Levant, it stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Coburn.
"We had an exceptional turnout last night. We sold out about 85 percent of the theaters we were in," Buena Vista Distribution president Chuck Viane said Sunday morning. "It was just a really great night at the movies. We were selling out like crazy.
"The audience loved it. We got a 90 percent audience reaction, which is the excellent category [in BV's research polls conducted for it by its network of college students across the country]. Two weeks from now we open over the Martin Luther King weekend [Jan. 18-21]. We look forward to some great success on that one. I would think will be up around 2,000 theaters."
EXPANSIONS
On the expansion front this weekend Miramax's R rated Oscar contender drama In the Bedroom widened in its seventh week with a still encouraging ESTIMATED $1.7 million at 207 theaters (+104 theaters; $8,200 per theater. Its cume is approximately $4.3 million.
Directed by Todd Field, it stars Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Nick Stahl and Marisa Tomei.