Weekend Box Office (February 8 - 10, 2002)
by Gitesh Pandya
THIS WEEKEND A pair of action films from veteran directors, both delayed from their 2001 release dates, go head-to-head at the box office and face additional competition from a kid comedy. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Collateral Damage, the remake of Rollerball, and Big Fat Liar all head to theaters on Friday looking to shake up the charts. Meanwhile, the start of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City will provide moviegoers with a reason to stay at home, although the overall impact is debatable.
Once the biggest movie star on the planet, Arnold Schwarzenegger aims to return to the number one spot for the first time in almost five years with the action thriller Collateral Damage from acclaimed director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, Under Siege). The former bodybuilding champ plays a firefighter who takes the law into his own hands when Columbian terrorists blow up an L.A. high-rise killing his wife and son. Originally set for an October 5th release last fall, Warner Bros. postponed the date after the September 11 attacks because the plot was too much for Americans to handle at that time. Now, the studio is in the difficult position of trying to sell a picture by cashing in on the nation's newfound love of "heroes," while not making it look too obvious. In essence, the storyline has become bigger than the star.
In recent years, Arnold's luster has faded at the box office. His last two films include 2000's PG-13 sci-fi flick The 6th Day ($13M opening/$34.5M total) and 1999's R-rated satanic thriller End of Days ($20.5M/$66.9M). Both carried budgets in the vicinity of $100M and like most of the actor's pictures, grossed twice as much in overseas markets. With the R-rated Collateral Damage, Schwarzenegger reverts back to his play-by-his-own-rules action hero mode in a modern-day setting. But Damage does suffer from the same problem as other recent Schwarzenegger vehicles - no female starpower to provide cross-gender appeal. Sure, guys will want to see Arnold put the smackdown on the bad guys. But his more successful films boast strong female leads played by popular actresses who help bring out women as well. See Linda Hamilton in T2, Vanessa Williams in Eraser, or Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies. With Collateral Damage, once again most of the cash was spent on the main star leaving little left for some female insurance.
Still, Collateral Damage is very topical and many will be intrigued by the storyline. The film may very well be remembered as the comeback picture which made Schwarzenegger relevant again. Hey, Warners did it for Steven Seagal last spring with the top spot debut of Exit Wounds. Adult males will be the primary audience for Damage and with Black Hawk Down aging steadily, the time is right for dollars to spread to another action-packed film. Rollerball may take some of the younger action fans out of the picture, but a return to the number one spot seems likely for the last action hero who hasn't ruled the charts since playing Mr. Freeze in 1997's Batman & Robin. Tapping into America's thirst for revenge on international terrorists, Collateral Damage should open with strength and display legs that are moderate at best through the spring. The action film invades 2,824 theaters and could collect about $18M this weekend.
Straight from the small screen sitcom world, Frankie Muniz (Fox's Malcolm in the Middle) headlines the pre-teen revenge comedy Big Fat Liar from Universal. The sixteen-year-old star plays a student who heads to Hollywood to confront a sleazy producer who took his class paper and turned it into a hit motion picture. Directed by newcomer Shawn Levy, Liar also stars Paul Giamatti and Amanda Bynes from Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show. Adolescents looking for cheesy fun are the target audience here. Universal is betting that fans of Muniz will follow him to the multiplexes and pay to see him in a big screen adventure. The studio is also hoping that the larger-than-usual audience for last Sunday's post-Super Bowl episode of Malcolm will help put the actor and the film in the spotlight this weekend.
Fellow PG-rated pics Snow Dogs and A Walk to Remember will provide the most direct competition for kids and teens. Reviews for Big Fat Liar have been poor, but that should mean little to the audience being courted. With Presidents Day and school holidays around the corner, Liar stands a chance to soak up decent grosses in the first two weeks before floating away to the shelves of Blockbuster where a larger audience will find it. Opening nationwide, Big Fat Liar could gross about $10M this weekend.
Delayed from its summer 2001 release date, and now the proud owner of a PG-13 rating, Rollerball arrives in theaters from MGM putting a new spin on the 1975 cult hit. Chris Klein, L.L. Cool J, and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos star in the futuristic action film which looks inside the fictional world of the colorful players of a wildly popular extreme sport. Die Hard's John McTiernan directs. Rollerball aims squarely at teens and young adults with guys sure to outnumber gals in the seats. Not an event reimagining like Planet of the Apes, Rollerball enters the marketplace more like 1999's spring dud The Mod Squad - a remake nobody asked for.
The cast provides little starpower as Klein routinely flops with any non-American Pie film he stars in. Give MGM credit for trying to appeal to fans of The Fast and the Furious in their ad campaign. Rollerball desperately wants the same crowd that powered that Universal hit to blockbuster status last summer. But by stretching the truth with their "from the people who brought you" line, the studio got in hot water for confusing the public. Young males should provide the most business, but with adult action fans lining up for Arnold, Rollerball will have to split the vote. Gliding into 2,762 theaters, the MGM film may take in around $9M.
After a three-week occupation of the number one position, Sony's Somalia saga Black Hawk Down looks to drop down a couple of notches on the charts. Collateral Damage will take away the Ridley Scott picture's adult male audience so a 35% fall to $7M should occur giving Hawk $86M overall. Disney's Snow Dogs has had family audiences all to itself for the last three weeks but will face new competition from Big Fat Liar. A 25% decline to $7.5M seems likely putting the Alaskan-set comedy at $60M after 24 days. A Walk to Remember, The Count of Monte Cristo, and A Beautiful Mind should continue their solid runs with weekend takes of about $6M each.
Take this week's Reader Survey on whether The Lord of the Rings will surpass $300M. For a review of Black Hawk Down visit The Chief Report.
LAST YEAR MGM cannibalized the marketplace with the killer sequel Hannibal which dominated the box office with a mammoth $58M debut setting new opening weekend records for the studio, the month of February, and for R-rated films. The Anthony Hopkins-Julianne Moore blockbuster went on to devour $165.1M domestically and $349M worldwide. After two weeks at number one, The Wedding Planner settled for bridesmaid status and placed second with $7.7M. Debuting in third was the young adult comedy Saving Silverman with a modest $7.4M on its way to $19.4M. Sony Classics took fourth with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with $5.4M edging out Tom Hanks in Cast Away which rounded out the top five with $5.2M.
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This column is updated three times each week : Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday (post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday night (actuals). Data source : Exhibitor Relations, EDI. Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of the author.
Last Updated : February 7, 2002 at 1:30AM EST