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2001 Poised to Become Record-Breaker at the Box Office
Aired July 06, 2001 - 16:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Over the cats and dog days of summer, moviegoers are heading to the box office in droves. The studios have racked up $1 billion in ticket sales already, with much more big films yet to debut. Paul Vercammen has the totals from Hollywood.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SHREK")
EDDIE MURPHY, ACTOR: You've got let me stay, please,!
MIKE MYERS, ACTOR: OK!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shrek and his band of buddies turned fantasy into reality in the form of cold, hard cash, making $233 million so far in the United States and Canada. That's tops this year. Excuse theater managers for gushing.
REX HESCOCK, G.M., GENERAL CINEMA WESTWOOD: It's been pretty tremendous. You know, I think everyone thought "Shrek" was going to be great, but not this great.
VERCAMMEN: "The Mummy Returns" stands in second this summer, $198 million domestic. And "Pearl Harbor" third, $182 million.
PAUL DERGARABEDIAN, PRESIDENT, EXHIBITOR RELATIONS: Summer to date, we're about 10 or 11 percent ahead of last summer, and more importantly about 6 percent ahead of the record summer of 1999.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been seeing a lot of movies. I had a lot of free time.
VERCAMMEN: A wide variety of films are luring moviegoers into theaters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "The Fast and the Furious."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "The Fast and the Furious."
VERCAMMEN: The car-racing saga has made a surprising $86 million. Lora Croft bungee-jumped to $107 million at the box office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?")
MARTIN LAWRENCE, ACTOR: You will regret this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: It hasn't all been fun. Among the box-office disappointments: "What's The Worst That Could Happen," $31 million and "Evolution," $35 million.
But July 4 sparked more movie-going. "Cats & Dogs" came out on top with $9 million in its debut day. "Scary Movie 2," a close second, $8.7 million. While "A.I.," already out almost a week, finished third, bumping its total to $42 million.
"Scary Movie 2"'s creators feared the competition.
MARLON WAYANS, ACTOR: Spielberg is a beast.
SHAWN WAYANS, ACTOR: Yeah, hey.
(CROSSTALK)
M. WAYANS: This man has made more $100 million movies than I've got curls in his head.
S. WAYANS: That's right!
M. WAYANS: So let's slow it up on that.
VERCAMMEN: But potential hits will sprint onto screens for the rest of the summer. "Jurassic Park III," the remake of "Planet of the Apes," Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones in "America's Sweethearts" and two more sequels: "Rush Hour 2" and "American Pie 2."
DERGARABEDIAN: Normally, you see July and August slow down. We call them the dog days of August. That's not going to happen this year with the number of films that are still to come that are going to play big in late July, August and, you know, well into September.
VERCAMMEN: 2001 seems destined to go down as the box office's summer of love for theater-goers.
Paul Vercammen, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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