HOLLYWOOD - The Jack the Ripper thriller From Hell won the weekend box office race, but not by much, according to final ticket-sales figures released
by Exhibitor Relations Monday.
The Johnny Depp starrer earned a
relatively mild $11 million, closely followed by Riding in Cars With Boys
, starring Drew Barrymore, which took in $10.4 million.
Training Day, starring Denzel Washington, which had held the top
spot during the previous two weeks, dropped to third place with $9.3
million, while Bandits, starring Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton
, slipped from second to fourth place with $8.3 million.
The
Robert Redford movie The Last Castle, which many analysts had
expected to be the clear winner at the box office, earned a
disappointing $7.1 million to open in fifth place.
Both Bandits
and The Last Castle appeal to older audiences -- a fact which
may have contributed to their selling fewer tickets than expected. "When
there are world events that affect people, the older, upscale audience
is the one that's glued to CNN, that's glued to NBC," MGM chief Alex
Yemenidjian told Bloomberg News.
The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled
by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to
date):
1. From Hell, 20th Century Fox, $11,014,818, (New);
2. Riding in Cars With Boys, Sony, $10,404,652, (New); 3.
Training Day, Warner Bros. $9,325,443, 3 Wks. ($57,283,521); 4.
Bandits, MGM, $8,304,007, 2 Wks. ($24,884,979); 5. The Last Castle, DreamWorks, $7,088,213, (New); 6. Serendipity,
Miramax, $5,446,446, 3 Wks. ($34,426,889); 7. Corky Romano,
Disney, $5,307,985, 2 Wks. ($16,185,276); 8. Don't Say a Word,
20th Century Fox, $4,215,594, 4 Wks. ($47,885,454); 9. Iron Monkey
, Miramax/Dimension, $3,190,010, 2 Wks. ($10,737,961); 10.
Zoolander, Paramount, $3,135,854, 4 Wks. ($40,018,837).