Hollywood - It was a disappointing weekend for Star Trek fans as they saw the 10th installment of their favorite franchise defeated at the box office by J. Lo's new romantic comedy, Maid in Manhattan, which cleaned up with a sparkling $19 million.Star Trek: Nemesis was flying in second place at less than warp speed with $18.8 million.
Drumline marched into third place with a high energy $13.1 million.
The Hot Chick opened with a not-so-hot $7.5 million in a fourth place tie.
Die Another Day showed good legs, tying for fourth with $7.5 million. With its cume now at $131.6 million, Die is now the biggest grossing Bond film ever in domestic theaters.
The weekend also saw an impressive platform release start for New Line's drama-comedy About Schmidt, which won best picture in the Los Angeles Film Critics' vote Saturday. The Alexander Payne film grossed about $283,000 at 6 theaters, averaging an enviable $47,167 per theater. (For details and comments by New Line Distribution president David Tuckerman see OTHER OPENINGS below.)
Key films grossed $98.5 million, up nearly 13 percent from this weekend last year when they did $87.5 million.
THE TOP TEN
Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures' PG-13 rated romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan opened to a chart topping ESTIMATED $19.0 million at 2,838 theaters ($6,695 per theater).
Directed by Wayne Wang, Maid stars Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes.
"It is Jennifer's biggest (opening)," Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman Jeff Blake said Sunday morning.
"The Cell was $17.5 million (when it) opened Aug. 18, 2000. The demographics of the picture were about 60-40, female to male. The key to the success was the wide spread of ages. It was just about 50-50 over and under 25. I think all ages are looking at this as a picture for them and that is, perhaps, a combination of younger fans of Jennifer's and also that the movie, itself, is a real package that's a strong romantic comedy with a great cast (in addition to Lopez) with Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson and Bob Hoskins. So it's certainly not just all on Jennifer's shoulders although they're very lovely shoulders to be on."
Focusing on why Maid did so well, Blake observed, "I think it's a story that people can identify with. We're thrilled with the placement because it seems for the holidays this is the kind of picture that could be the mutual choice of the entire family. It just is such an enjoyable, identifiable story.
"Normally, (when) you get a romantic comedy that gets a good start right before the holiday season, it can do five or six times its opening (weekend gross). So that certainly was what happened to pictures like Jerry Maguire and some others that have debuted prior to the holiday like Miss Congeniality. We certainly would love to see the same thing happen to us. We go into the holiday period in a pretty strong position and, obviously, being number one we couldn't have asked for a better start."
Blake also was pleased with how well Columbia and Intermedia Films' R rated Oscar contender Adaptation held up in its second weekend of platform release. Continuing at seven theaters, Adaptation grossed an ESTIMATED $274,000, averaging $39,150 and down only 29 percent from its opening weekend. Its cume is approximately $855,000.
Directed by Spike Jonze, it stars Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper.
"We're adding approximately 100 screens on Friday (Dec. 20) and then expanding again on Jan. 10," Blake said. "We got an L.A. Film Critics award last night (for Chris Cooper for supporting actor and a runner-up screenplay award for Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman) and we hope the good news keeps coming."