HOLLYWOOD - Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz cruised into first place with Vanilla Sky, opening to $25 million despite some of the year's most bruising reviews.Sky's launch wasn't sky-high, however, coming in about $13 million less than the $38 million kick-off for Ocean's Eleven starring George Clooney one week earlier and $8.6 million below the $33.6 million opening for What Women Want starring Mel Gibson this time last year.
Sky sent Ocean's Eleven into second place with a still winning $23 million. The weekend's other wide release, Not Another Teen Movie, opened in third place to just over $13 million, a strong start for an R rated teen movie that only cost $15 million.
The weekend also saw a sizzling platform launch for The Royal Tenenbaums, averaging nearly $51,000 per theater for five runs in New York and L.A. There also were well-attended sneak previews for Kate & Leopold and The Majestic, suggesting both should open well Friday.
Even with $61 million in ticket sales for the weekend's top three films, key films--those grossing at least $500,000--took in only about $89 million, down 13 percent from $102 million this time last year.
THE TOP TEN
Paramount's opening of its R rated romantic thriller Vanilla Sky captured first place with a lively ESTIMATED $25.0 million at 2,742 theaters ($9,117 per theater).
Sky's average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.
Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, it stars Cruise, Cruz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, Noah Taylor and Cameron Diaz.
"Obviously, I'd like to have seen more out of a Tom Cruise movie, but at the same it's a very strong opening," Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning. "The picture's performing in the big towns. It's not a disaster in the small towns, but it's much stronger in the urban markets."
Asked about the film's modest increase of about 11 percent from Friday to Saturday, Lewellen replied, "Ocean's Eleven was up about 16 or 17 percent last week. Adult movies will get a bigger bump on Saturday [versus] Friday, but normally the maximum that you'll get is around 20 percent. What Women Want was 22 or 23 percent last year. I had hoped it would be around 15 percent [for Sky], so it's a little below that.
"Looking at the newscasts, apparently yesterday was an extremely heavy day for shopping. And I think that's the [adult] audience for this picture."