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American Morning
'Spy Kids' Sneaks Into Top Box Office Slot
Aired April 09, 2001 - 11:43 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we take a lighter note and turn to showbiz news. Laurin Sydney with a couple of "Spy Kids," a movie that's really taken off.
Good morning, Laurin.
LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, and it doesn't take a detective to say this is going to be a hit because those "Spy Kids" aren't afraid of spiders or anything for that matter. The family secret agent thrilled was 001 at the box office again this weekend. It raked in another estimated $17 million, beating the debut of Morgan Freeman's "Along Came a Spider."
Now, what is it about this movie that has struck a chord with the audience? Well, let's find out from its pint-sized stars.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SPY KIDS")
DARYL SABARA, "JUNI CORTEZ": What did you do?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Your parents are international spies, but something's gone wrong.
ALEXA VARGA, "CARMEN CORTEZ": My parents can't be spies. They're not cool enough.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: That's cool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLA GUGINO, "INGRID CORTEZ": Once you have kids, all of a sudden, you're like, oh, it'll be cool to make a cool movie that kids can go see, too. You know, because we all do so many movies that the kids can't see. So, it's nice to do one that you actually feel proud of and kids can come see it and enjoy it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SPY KIDS")
GUGINO: Close your eyes. We don't want you to see this, OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Action. Action.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop.
SABARA: Can you make it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to hold his hands low and high so that when you look you see...
ROBERT RODRIGUEZ, WRITER-DIRECTOR, "SPY KIDS": Some of my favorite movies growing up were -- you watch them again and they were so funny and a lot of great action, they're comical, and then you see the rating, it's rated G. And I think, how come people can't make movies like that anymore? It's not that difficult. It's more challenging to come up with action and adventure and create tension without there being real danger or violence at all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SPY KIDS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You're supposed to be in line with the others. You're supposed to be in line with the others. Stop that. Stop that this instant. Stop that right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SPY KIDS")
VARGA: Mom, he's mimicking me.
SABARA: Mom, he's mimicking me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SABARA: And my favorite part was when the airplane was on the -- had a harness on, and we actually flew in the sky. But it was on a...
VARGA: We did.
SABARA: ...on the train.
VARGA: We were on this tiny, roof, OK, and there was this crane on the roof that lifted us up 25 feet into the air. Our moms were like -- but it's cool, I love it. It's cool. It's fun.
SABARA: It's great. It's great.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SPY KIDS")
VARGA: I think that it's up to us. You with me.
SABARA: OK.
VARGA: How to be a spy. Juni?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYDNEY: Now we know how. With us now is our box office analyst, Martin Grove of "The Hollywood Reporter," who has been doing some spying of his own to get us the box office scoop.
Marty, now you say it was a big weekend for two big showbiz kids, correct?
MARTIN GROVE, "THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER": Laurin, you're not kidding. It was, and those kids are Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the co- chairman of Miramax films. Now Dimension Films, which made "Spy Kids," is, of course, a division of Miramax. They are thrilled.
The picture cost them $35 billion to make. It has already grossed over $49 million. It's on its wayto $100 million. A great marketing job by Miramax and Dimension. This pictures shows that they are able to make pictures for a controlled price. That's about $20 million less than the Hollywood average these days. So, they're, very, very happy.
SYDNEY: You know, there was other cause for those kid Weinstein brothers to be happy this weekend. What was that, Marty?
GROVE: That's on the Miramax side of the fence. That's Harvey Weinstein. Bob Weinstein is on the Dimension side. Now, Harvey had sneak previews of "Bridget Jones's Diary." That's Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant's new film. They had about 600 sneaks over the weekend. They were well-attended. They had about 85 percent in the top two boxes, excellent and very good. They had 75 percent of those on hand who said yes, I would definitely recommend this, and 65 percent of the audience was women.
Very good sign. It opens April 13th, and that Friday the 13th should be a lucky day. Looks like this picture should do nicely.
SYDNEY: OK, and the Weinsteins had to move over for just a second because "Along Came a Spider" crawled to second place.
GROVE: Indeed, a web of a little over $17 million. That's really a very good start for this picture, about $6,500 a screen. Now the original film, "Kiss the Girls," this is the prequel to this. The original film did about $60 million, and over the weekend, Laurin, Paramount said that they think this film will wind up now going somewhere between $60 and $70 million in domestic theaters, and that'll be a nice showing. They're very happy with that.
SYDNEY: Nice show indeed. And Marty, was Johnny Depp's "Blow" up to snuff? A lot of talk about that one.
GROVE: Laurin, there were long lines for "Blow," and they were lines of moviegoers, happily. The picture worked very well. New Line, which really hasn't had a hit for a while, has flexed its box offices muscles again, with "Blow" opening to about $12.5 million. That's around $5,500 per theater. Johnny Depp definitely has a following.
This picture should play in theaters over the coming weeks, you know, as we head up into the big films of mid-May, which will start the summer season. So this is a good time to be putting a film like this out into theaters. New Line should wind up doing nicely with it.
SYDNEY: And Marty Grove, you have a following, but unfortunately, it's time for you to blow on out of here.
GROVE: I knew you were going to say that.
SYDNEY: We'll catch you next time, though. I'm sorry.
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