HOLLYWOOD - Hobbits continued to stand tall at the box office as Lord of the Rings ruled with $23 million and a cume of $205.5 million.Also helping Hollywood avoid a New Year's hangover were A Beautiful Mind's mind-boggling $17 million expansion, Ocean's Eleven's new winnings of $11.8 million, Jimmy Neutron's good hold with $9.2 million and The Royal Tenenbaums' $8.8 million royal expansion.
Key films--those grossing at least $500,000--took in a sparkling total of nearly $125 million, up about 7.3 percent from $116 million this time last year.
THE TOP TEN
New Line Cinema's PG-13 rated epic The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was still commanding the center ring for the third consecutive week, holding solidly with an ESTIMATED $23.0 million (-41%) at 3,381 theaters (+22 theaters; $6,803 per theater). Its cume is approximately $205.5 million, heading for $300 million.
Rings was honored Saturday night as the year's best picture in the AFI's first annual awards telecast live on CBS. Regardless of how meaningful the AFI endorsement may be in terms of Rings' Oscar prospects, New Line will have something new to trumpet in the film's ads. The most significant bellwether for the Oscars should be the Golden Globes, to be telecast Jan. 20 live on NBC.
Directed by Peter Jackson, Rings' ensemble cast is led by Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen.
"When you think about crapshoots [risking about $300 million to make three Rings films at once was a big one]," New Line distribution president David Tuckerman said Sunday morning, noting the film's tremendous success. "Everybody was betting that it was going to be a disaster. The whole industry was betting on it."