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American Morning

Vampire Film 'Queen of the Damned' Takes a Bite Out of the Box Office

Aired February 25, 2002 - 09:42   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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The vampire film "Queen of the Damned," starring the late Aaliyah took a bite out of the box office this weekend. It was the top-grossing movie, followed by "John Q," "Dragonfly," "Return to Neverland," which I'm still convinced is a horror film starring Michael Jackson, though it's not, and "Crossroads" with Britney Spears.

joining us now from Los Angeles to talk about Hollywood's hottest and some Oscar buzz as well, KTLA movie critic Sam Rubin.

Thanks a lot for being with us, Sam.

SAM RUBIN, KTLA MOVIE CRITIC: Good morning, Anderson. How are you?

COOPER: I'm doing well. I'm doing well. A lot of marketing shenanigans for the movies that opened up this weekend. "Queen of the Damned" with Aaliyah, it's marketing as starring Aaliyah, but I understand she doesn't show up like an hour into the movie.

RUBIN: She is only featured in the last third of the movie, and I guess it may be what some people are calling the Jim Croche effect. Remember how the singer sold so many more records after he passed away. I guess the curiosity amongst Aaliyah's music fans to hear her on the big screen helped this movie along. This is a movie that's received such bad reviews and initially had such bad buzz, Warner Brothers was planning to release it straight to video, bypass theaters entirely, avoid the critical blasting, but then some people said, you know what, her fans will turn out for this, and they did, the number one movie in the country, and I think that's taken everybody by surprise.

COOPER: We'll see how long it stays at the top of the box office. "John Q," which was last weekend's number one pick at the box office, really dropped off this weekend, was down almost 50 percent, right?

RUBIN: Well, not quite 50 percent, about 38 percent, I believe, and this is interesting because Denzel Washington is terrific, and people would pay to see Denzel read the phonebook. This is an absolutely dreadful movie that takes an important topic, you know, the debate about health care in the U.S., and just turns into a bad, bad soap opera, but I think Denzel overcomes that, and the fact of the matter is usually the second weekend tells the tale.

The movie did drop, but it didn't drop nearly as much as say the Britney Spears movie. Britney went over a 50 percent drop, from second to fifth place, so Denzel's fans told their friends, you know what, the movie's bad, but he's good, and I suspect Britney's fans told their fans, you know what, I've seen it, don't bother.

COOPER: I think Britney's fans actually said, like, you know, like, don't bother.

RUBIN: What about "Dragonfly?" This is a movie, again, the marketing; it's being marketed as a supernatural thriller, but I'm told it's not a supernatural thriller. It is more of a romantic movie, a romantic drama, with some sort of thriller or ghostly elements, but what they're doing here, which I think is interesting, is to a degree running away from the star. I mean, there was a time when Kevin Costner could genuinely open a movie. But if you look at the print ads and the like, it's more, can you believe the ending of "Dragonfly," you know, the twists you'll never forget. And so they seem to have gotten away from Kevin, to a degree.

And people turned out third place, about $10 million. That's nothing compared to what Kevin Costner used to do. So yes, I think they were trying to sell this as kind of the "Sixth Sense" or something scarier or more thrilling than it was, and they ran away from the heart of the movie. Again, I think second week will tell the tale. And I would anticipate a bit of a drop in the second week.

COOPER: It's been a bad weekend -- I mean, a bad couple of weeks for big stars. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't done well, and now Kevin Costner. They must be pretty nervous.

RUBIN: Maybe we're witnessing something of a generational shift. "Collateral Damage," the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, really almost out and out tanked, this Kevin Costner movie. These are stars that have been big on the big screen for a decade or more, and now there's considerable buzz, the new movie that opens Friday, Josh Hartnett, 23- year-old, "40 Days and 40 Nights," an abstinence comedy. That is supposed to play well. This Aaliyah, of course a singer who was very young, had young fans, that is playing very well. I think sometimes we're finding particularly with marketing that transcends just the typical TV spots and the like, that you don't necessarily have to have a big familiar marquee name to open a movie.

COOPER: They really are not making abstinence comedies like they used to.

RUBIN: No, that's the shame, I think so, too.

COOPER: Very briefly, British Academy Awards yesterday, anything we should learn from that?

RUBIN: Some people are suggesting this has narrowed the Oscars. "Lord of the Rings" is the movie that dominated as best picture. It is now a two-picture race they are saying about the American Oscars between "Lord of the Rings" up against "Beautiful Mind." COOPER: All right, we have a picture of Nicole Kidman arriving at the ceremonies looking resplendent in a beautiful dress.

RUBIN: Yes.

COOPER: Thanks a lot Sam, Sam Rubin, reporting -- there's Nicole Kidman.

RUBIN: Very rainy there, Anderson. Apparently people have trouble with their shoes.

COOPER: Yes, well apparently people didn't need tops there either. Nicole was sporting quite a revealing outfit there. I don't think people were looking at the rain.

RUBIN: She won already.

COOPER: Sam Rubin, KTLA.

RUBIN: See you, Anderson.

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