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American Morning

"Mummy" Sequel Has Record-Setting Weekend at the Box Office

Aired May 07, 2001 - 11:36   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 CORRESPONDENT: It was a record-setting weekend at the box office, too. "The Mummy" returned and kicked off the summer movie season in very high gear. Our box office analyst, Mr. Marty Grove of "The Hollywood Reporter" has the latest, and Marty, $68 million bucks in one weekend. What happened?

MARTIN GROVE, "THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER": Oh, Laurin, it was mummies day at box office. They celebrated a week early. Universal absolutely thrilled. This picture looks like it could hit the $200 million mark. That's about $45 million more than the first "Mummy" back in 1999 did. It did $155 million in the U.S. and Canada, and it did about $414 million worldwide. So, there's huge money here.

Universal did everything right. It's a PG-13, you can come in no matter how old or young you are, and, of course, it's playing to a very broad audience. They marketed this picture just great. They've turned it into an adventure series like Indiana Jones. If you remember way back in 1932, you may have seen the original "Mummy" with Boris Karloff. That was a horror movie.

SYDNEY: I remember back in '32, Marty.

GROVE: I don't.

SYDNEY: Anyway -- good. The movie, "Driven" kind of stalled this weekend, didn't it?

GROVE: I think it was double-parked in first place last week. It had to get out of there real fast. It fell 50 percent, did about $6 million. This one may do well internationally. Auto racing a very popular outside of the U.S.

SYDNEY: Now, there's lots of buzz on Australian heartthrob Heath Ledgers' new flick, "A Knight's Tale." What do you think?

GROVE: I liked it a lot. I saw it, but more importance, Columbia Picture had sneak previews this Saturday, 766 sneaks, and they had a rating of 85 percent in the top two boxes, excellent and very good. Eighty percent of those on hand said they would definitely recommend it. The picture opened May 11th at about 2,800-plus theaters. I think it will do very, very well particularly with the young audience.

SYDNEY: Can't beat a heartthrob. Now, Marty, the studios are pulling out all the stops to plug their big summer movies, aren't they, as usual?

GROVE: Laurin, yes they are, and our friends at Warner Brothers, a sister company to CNN, sent us this pizza box. It's from Warner Brothers Pizzeria. Laurin, on here, it says since 1924. Of course, that's when Warner Brothers went into business.

Now, when will you open it up, it turns out it's not actually a real pizza. But it is a pizza slice wheel, and when you turn it, it reveals some of the movies coming from Warner Brothers this summer; big films like Steven Spielberg's AI "Cats and Dogs" for July 4th weekend; "Angel Eyes" with Jennifer Lopez; "Swordfish" from Joel Silver, starring John Travolta. It's going to be a big summer for Warner Brothers.

We will be talking about their movies, obviously, in the weeks ahead as they open and presumably do great business. But great creative marketing from Warner Brothers.

SYDNEY: Very clever. I'm glad that pizza wasn't from 1924.

GROVE: Yes.

SYDNEY: Thank you, Marty. We'll see you next time.

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