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American Morning

Business Booming at Box Office

Aired May 27, 2002 - 09:43   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's business as usual at the box office. And business is booming. "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" held serve this weekend, taking the top spot again by a wide margin. The summer movie season now in full swing, it's shaping up to be quite a season at that. What do we have to look forward to? What perhaps should you avoid in the weeks ahead?

Joining us now from Los Angeles, our movie maven and editor of all things related to entertainment, KTLA entertainment editor Sam Rubin. You also, by the way, have the scoop on J. Lo. I guess you had a chance to talk to her. We'll get to that in a couple of minutes, but talk to me about the weekend receipts, surprises, disappointments. What does it look like?

SAN RUBIN, KTLA ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: You know, Jack, we were already half a billion dollars ahead year to year when the final figures -- these are estimates that you are seeing on your screen now. When the final figures are released tomorrow, you'll find it was a record-breaking Memorial Day weekend, with "Star Wars" in the top spot, "Spiderman" in second place. "Spiderman" has been out for almost a month, $36 million. Look at "Insomnia" and "Spirit" and Jennifer Lopez's movie "Enough," all of these very, very strong numbers.

And when you consider that the market is very, very elastic and has really expanded to accommodate two extraordinary blockbusters, people in Hollywood and movie owners across the country are particularly excited.

What also is interesting is we're seeing certain movies appear to be review proof. "Star Wars" is an example. Critics didn't really chime in, but obviously, audiences have. And Jennifer Lopez's movie "Enough" got devastating reviews. You and I talked about it on Friday, how bad they were. She made the round of television stations.

I talked to Jennifer late on Friday, and I asked her about this whole notion of critic not liking movies like "Star Wars" or movie like her movie and her thought about that.

Here's what Jennifer Lopez had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER LOPEZ, ACTRESS: I watch it with an audience. I know -- I've seen their response. I've seen it two times with two different audiences from two different parts of the country, and they all have the same reaction. They just are yelling, and cheering and screaming, and it's an exciting thriller, and that's really the real critics to me, not people who write stuff in a newspaper, who consider themselves kind of, you know, experts on movies.

We do these movies for the fans to go out and have fun and enjoy themselves, so if they're enjoying, I feel like my job is done and I'm very happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIN: And apparently, they are enjoying it to some degree. That's a pretty good number for a movie, $19 million got. that has gotten such incredibly mediocre reviews, so we will see what transpires. For the rest of the summer, more blockbusters to come, but not all the upcoming movies will have the success we've seen with "Spiderman" and "Star Wars."

Ben Affleck's movie, "Sum of All Fears," I think will also get a very negative critical reaction. We've seen the stars, and the stump (ph) is that we're talking about this movie. The question and perhaps controversy here, is it too realistic in light of recent events? It talks about a dirty nuclear bomb, threats on our own soil. For one's summer entertainment, do you really want to see a movie like that?

And I think a lot of film fans may say they don't want to see movie like that. On the other hand, there's a lot of light movies coming out as well, most notably, maybe one of the biggest movies of the summer in addition to "Star Wars" and "Spiderman" is going to be the "Austin Powers" film. That should be extraordinarily huge.

Then Tom Hanks, of course, is in a drama with Paul Newman, "Road to Perdition."

There's a lot of big movies coming out, and it's a habitual experience, Jack, if you or your family goes to the theater and has a good time, then you know what, you go again,and so on and so forth. So, so far, it's looking extraordinarily bright.

CAFFERTY: I was going to say, the sum total of all this is the industry as a whole is out to shatter its own records not by a little, but perhaps by a mile, are they not?

RUBIN: Well, a country mile. Again, half a billion dollars ahead already, and that doesn't even include this weekend. It could be more than a billion dollars by the time summer's over.

CAFFERTY: Wow. All right, Sam, appreciate that. Sam Rubin, KTLA entertainment editor, joining us in the middle of the night from California.

Good to see you.

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