'Patch' pulls B.O. snow job
Holiday pix hold up despite winter storms
Nonetheless, as the 1998 holiday season wound to a close, exhibitors and distributors had little to complain about. Four of the six Christmas-period wide releases now appear likely to top $100 million domestically.
Tops among them is Universal's "Patch Adams," which wore the B.O. crown for a second weekend in a row with a studio-estimated $20.1 million. That brings the Robin Williams starrer's 10-day cume to $66.6 million, putting it on course to finish between $130 million and $150 million.
Once again, second and third place went to Sony's "Stepmom" and Warner Bros.' "You've Got Mail," with $15 million and $14.1 million, respectively.
With $50.4 million under its belt after just 10 days, the Chris Columbus- helmed "Stepmom" should top out at just over $100 million. "Mail," which has collected $77.9 million since its Dec. 18 debut, figures to finish in the $130 million range.
Both pictures will face competition for adult auds when Buena Vista's courtroom drama "A Civil Action" debuts Friday on about 1,800 screens.
'Prince' near $70 mil
Meanwhile, DreamWorks' "The Prince of Egypt" walked into fourth place with a projected $11.5 million, down 24% from the previous weekend. While the studio had hoped for a slightly stronger hold, with a $66.6 million cume to-date, the Bible toon appears destined to squeak across the $100 million line Stateside.
So far, about 700,000 of the almost 1.7 million tickets acquired through a special Wal-Mart promotional package have been redeemed at the box office, said DreamWorks marketing chief Terry Press. The redeemed Wal-Mart tickets, which are equivalent to a little more than $3 million in ticket sales, have been folded into "POE's" domestic gross.
The best hold of the New Year's Day frame belonged to Thanksgiving holdover "A Bug's Life." The Pixar/ Disney collaboration dropped just 1% to $10 million, according to the studio's projections, bringing its cume to $137.6 million. The insect tale should buzz its way to $160 million before the end of its domestic life cycle.
"The next two weeks should be very good for "A Bug's Life," Buena Vista senior VP Chuck Viane predicted. "The weekend after New Year's is historically good for family films, and then there's the Martin Luther King holiday."
Buena Vista emerged the big winner for the overall Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday period with "A Bug's Life," "The Waterboy" (which hit $150 million Sunday), and "Enemy of the State," which is poised to cross the $100 million mark within a week.
Monkey business
But BV can also claim the least promising of the wide Christmas releases. "Mighty Joe Young" grossed $8.7 million in its second weekend, bringing its cume to $28.8 million. The gorilla pic doesn't appear likely to top $50 million domestically.
Miramax's "The Faculty" dropped 25% to $8 million in its second weekend. With a 10-day cume of $26.4 million, the relatively low-budget sci-fi horror pic should eventually gross slightly more than $40 million in North America.
Total ticket sales for the New Year's Day frame were expected to come in at about $120 million, down 19% from the record three-day tally of $148.2 million a week earlier. Business was down about 4% from a year earlier when "Titanic's" $33.3 million third- weekend take propelled the top 60 pics to a $124.8 million finish for the frame.
"This could end up being a $20 million storm," said Jeff Blake, president of Sony Pictures Releasing. In the storm's wake, the top four films all dipped between 9% and 12% Saturday; when New Year's Day fell on Friday in previous years, there has been an increase on Saturday.
The weather also made weekend estimates more difficult than usual, as some theaters failed to report Saturday's grosses. It wasn't clear if the houses were actually closed or simply not reporting.
