With a 1-2 finish by "Scream 3" and Leonardo DiCaprio starrer "The Beach" and strong bows for kid-oriented "Snow Day" and "The Tigger Movie," the weekend B.O. had a distinctive beat. If you were younger than 25, you could dance to it.
Latest -- and supposedly last -- installment in Miramax's "Scream" skein dropped 53% (predictably for a horror pic) in its sophomore outing to post an estimated $16.4 million frame. It's now grossed $57 million in 10 days.
By comparison, "Scream 2," released in December 1997, fell 58% in its second weekend and had $55 million after 10 days. Both previous "Scream" pics finished just north of $100 million domestically.
"If we can stay on that kind of track, we're in good shape," said David Kaminow, senior marketing veep at the Disney-run minimajor. "This drop is not unexpected and it's really not as bad as it could have been."
One mitigating factor is slasher pic's massive screen count of 3,467, about 700 more than the nearest rival. The screenage set a record for a debut and that mark could stand for a while given that most super-wide releases come during the summer.
"On the beach, out of sight really is out of mind," DiCaprio narrates in Fox's "The Beach." First effort shot since "Titanic" managed a so-so $15 million, execs estimate. That doesn't mean it'll drop out of sight, but with a fresh crop of Presidents Day pics due Friday, it could soon be out of most moviegoers' minds.
Still, Fox execs were satisfied with the opening, domestic film chairman Tom Sherak said.
They'd certainly picked a delicate project in Leo's first $20 million job. As unfairly high expectations mounted and many critics launched brickbats, Fox had to stick to its conservative marketing strategy and get the most out of an unenviable situation.
"Any time you have a star of that magnitude, we just needed to release the movie," Sherak said. "And everybody's happy with it."
The studio took heart in the fact that 57% of auds were female and 55% for the R-rated pic were younger than 25.
And in this case, the old battle cry of "make it up in foreign" may actually carry some weight. "The Beach" bowed Friday in the U.K., grossing about $4 million to place second behind Disney's "Toy Story 2." It's also been open for a week in five Asian territories, posting healthy results.
'Snow' plows big B.O.
Occupying the opposite end of the spectrum, from story to production cost to on-screen temperature, is Paramount's "Snow Day."
Nickelodeon Films' Chevy Chase kneeslapper slipped a whoppee cushion under pundits who expected far less than a $14.8 million launch. At $13 million to produce, it already looks like a very profitable "Day."
Par's distrib chief Wayne Lewellen said the core aud for "Snow Day" was split equally between boys and girls and the median age was about 11 or 12.
He praised the promotional effort of Nickelodeon, which proved its moxie with the $100-million-grossing animated pic "The Rugrats Movie." Other live-action efforts by cable TV channel's film production house include "Good Burger" and "Harriet the Spy," both of which "Snow Day" is likely to out-gross.
Rounding out the weekend's top four, which accounted for 62% of the estimated B.O. total, was Disney's "The Tigger Movie." An inexpensive toon drawing from the Winnie the Pooh franchise, pic mustered $9.2 million, though per-screen average of $3,382 didn't exactly stand Mouse House on its collective ears.
The total take for all pics was about $90 million, ACNielsen EDI estimates. Year-ago comparisons are out the window, as the second weekend in February 1999 was Presidents Day. The four-day total then was $116 million.
"Tigger" aside, Disney has two other animated pics to write home about. First is Thanksgiving leftover "Toy Story 2," which eclipsed "Ghostbusters" to move into the No. 18 all-time B.O. slot.
"Fantasia 2000" keeps drawing large-format converts to Imax houses. Full-length toon added another $2.3 million from 75 worldwide sites to bring its cume to $27.4 million.
That's about as exciting as the limited-release arena got.
Smoked out
Miramax expanded "Holy Smoke" to 68 screens from two, but Kate Winslet starrer registered an unspectacular $360,000 for a $5,300 average per site.
Fine Line added eight venues for "The Cup," which brought in about $6,500 per site, or $77,866. On Friday, G-rated Cannes favorite adds 10-15 new markets.
Another Fine Line effort, the horseracing-themed pic "Simpatico" is trailing the pack. Despite cast including Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Albert Finney and Sharon Stone, drama based on Sam Shepard play plummeted 61% in its second week of wider release after late-'99 Oscar qualifier.
Fine Line's Steve Friedlander sees "Simpatico" weekend take at $171,000 in 250 theaters. Cume is $777,000.
Warner Bros.' "My Dog Skip" saw its streak of good holds end. Receipts of family film dropped 40% to an estimated $68,484, or $2,362 in each of 29 theaters. Pic is due to widen out March 3.
WB also sneaked "The Whole Nine Yards" on 800 screens. Bruce Willis hit-man comedy got decent response from 550 sites WB polled. About 70% of auds checked the top two boxes, meaning they rated the film "excellent'' or "very good."
"Whole" opens Friday atop a competitive Presidents Day weekend slate. Other debuts include New Line's "Boiler Room," Sony's "Hanging Up" and USA Films' "Pitch Black."
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