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American Morning

Box Office Winners for the Weekend

Aired August 20, 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's check and see how things have shaped at the box office this weekend.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's do that.

HARRIS: We actually had a film that actually carried over from week to week.

KAGAN: So has our friend, Laurin Sydney. Hi, Laurin.

HARRIS: Hey, Laurin.

LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, for only the second time this summer.

Yes, you're right. "American Pie 2" is still the main course at the nation's movie theaters, while another sequel, "Rush Hour 2," came in second at the weekend's box office.

Here to tell us more is our very own box-office analyst, Mr. Marty Grove.

Marty, how are you today?

MARTY GROVE, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: I am glad Laurin, and so is "American Pie 2." Universal is thrilled. You know the last film to stay afloat for more than one weekend in first place was "Pearl Harbor," and you have to go back to May and early June for that. So this is a big success story. Particularly, Laurin, the fact that the film only cost $30 million to make. Universal has already grossed over $87 million, and I see this picture doing at least $125 million, and who knows, it could do better than that. It's a big, big hit. It will a lot of money for Universal.

SYDNEY: Thank you, Cressken. Now, another sequel, "Rush Hour 2," is not rushing out of the top five.

GROVE: No, but it is rushing to success, and that success is going to be huge. It's already done almost $165 million. It's going to go, I think, to $200 million. And Laurin, this is a movie that at the beginning of the summer, nobody was saying, they, this is going to be a big, big, big film. This will wind up probably doing more business than "Jurassic Park 3" and "Planet Of The Apes." SYDNEY: Marty, the movie I saw this weekend, Nicole Kidman's "The Others," has entered the fourth spot its second week in release, taking in almost $11 million.

What does that mean? Does this movie have legs?

GROVE: Well, "The Others" is doing much better than many others. It really is holding on great, Laurin. It only fell 23 percent in its second weekend. Now, this summer has been marked by 50 and 60 percent drops in the second week, and for just about everything.

The picture's holding up well, it's generating good word of mouth. Nicole Kidman is almost sure to be an Oscar nominee and a Golden Glob nominee. Her performance got great reviews, and the picture cost $17 million to make. So I would venture to say that Dimension Films, which is a unit of Miramax, is probably in profit or close to profit right this minute.

SYDNEY: Marty, three other movies didn't really open too big this weekend; It was "Rat Race," and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "American Outlaws." Why not?

GROVE: Well, I think that nobody really cared for any of them, and the marketing on "Rat Race" wasn't particularly good, I didn't think. "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," Universal had moved it out of the spring and into the summer, and the buzz out of England, where it has opened already was that it just wasn't a great a picture, although John Madden, who had directed it, had done "Shakespeare In Love," which was a great picture.

As for "American Outlaws," that just got shot down. That was a Morgan Creek production that Warners distributed. These films are kind of the dog days of summer films that just aren't going to go anywhere. Moviegoers decided to stay with the big hits and make sure that they catch up with them.

SYDNEY: And speaking of buzz, there was a sneak peak of Kevin Smith's latest "Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back." What's the words on the street? Is there buzz or not?

GROVE: The buzz is great. The sneaks that Dimension Films had over the weekend were well-attended. They had 75 to 80 percent of those on hand saying they would definitely recommended it. The top two boxes, which is to say excellent and very good, it drew about an 85 percent score there. Male/female were almost evenly split 50/50, and the age group was just the right group: 18 to 29 years old.

They like Kevin Smith's work as a director, they certainly like Ben Affleck, Shannon Elizabeth, Chris Rock. It's got just perfect cast, perfect film for that age group. And the buzz should be good. So, it opens Friday and next Monday we'll tell you how it did.

SYDNEY: And Marty, the buzz for us is that we are out of time. But we're going to get to see you next week.

GROVE: I'll be here. SYDNEY: A little bit later -- OK. A little bit later on "Showbiz Today Reports," one of Spain's foremost leading ladies is making her mark in American with her onscreen role in "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and her offscreen role as Tom Cruise's girlfriend. We will be talking to Penelope Cruz about her life in the limelight. That is during our 4:35 "Showbiz Today Reports."

Until then, I'm Laurin Sydney in New York. Now, let's go back to the limelight surrounding Daryn and Leon in Atlanta.

HARRIS: Well, one of us. You got that right about one of us.

SYDNEY: Oh, OK.

KAGAN: As my grandmother used to say.

SYDNEY: I agree.

HARRIS: And you know I ain't lying either. All right, thanks Laurin.

KAGAN: All right, see you.

HARRIS: Thanks, Laurin. We'll check in with you later.

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