New Line Cinema’s “Next Friday” scored throughout the first three days of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Reuters reported that the raunchy comedy starring Ice Cube earned the top spot at the box office in its debut weekend with an estimated $14.5 million.
“Stuart Little,” the mousecapade which has been a big winner for Sony Pictures, fell to No. 2 in its fifth week with an estimated $9.7 million. That was enough to push the family flick past the $100 million mark, with a total box office of approximately $106.8 million.
Denzel Washington‘s “The Hurricane” placed third in Reuters three-day estimates. The Oscar contender, starring Washington as real-life boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, enjoyed its first weekend in national release with an estimated $9.1 million. The Universal film had been playing as a limited engagement since Christmas.
Another film expanding into wide release, Sony’s “Girl, Interrupted,” earned an estimated $8.2 million. Starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie as patients trapped at a mental institution in 1969, the movie placed fourth at the box office after playing in limited release for the past two weeks.
Fifth place belonged to Warner Bros.’ “The Green Mile,” which fell three spots from the previous weekend to pull in an estimated $7.6 million. In its sixth week of release, the prison-bound drama starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan has earned approximately $101.6 million.
The Tim Allen–Sigourney Weaver sci-fi comedy “Galaxy Quest” went from fifth to sixth place with $6.6 million in estimated box office. The DreamWorks picture’s cumulative box office over four weeks is about $46.8 million.
Paramount’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” boasted a respectable estimated box office of $6 million, although the film fell from third to seventh in its fourth week of release. Overall, the high-stakes drama starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett has pulled in approximately $62.5 million.
The weekend’s clunker was MGM’s disastrous sci-fi flick “Supernova.” Plagued by production problems, bad word of mouth and an unknown director named Thomas Lee (a pseudonym for booted director Walter Hill), the movie managed a less-than-stellar estimated opening of $5.7 million.
“Toy Story 2” pulled in an animated $5 million in its ninth week of release. Disney’s super successful sequel, which came in sixth at the box office last weekend, continued to add to its coffers, and its total is now approximately $225.9 million.
Oliver Stone‘s gridiron sports flick “Any Given Sunday” rounded out the Reuters Top 10 report with an estimated take of $4.8 million. In its fourth week of play, Warner Bros.’ game fell from its previous weekend No. 4 spot, but it’s still on the board with an approximate total of $66.2 million.
