Weekend Box Office (April 20 - 22, 2001)

THIS WEEKEND Miramax claimed the top two spots at the North American box office with the British comedy Bridget Jones's Diary and the adventure film Spy Kids. A pair of new comedies found their way into the top five while most holdovers suffered only mild declines in the post-Easter frame.

Boosting its theater count by 38% (610 locations), Bridget Jones's Diary witnessed a gross similar to last weekend's with $10.2M, according to final studio figures. Off a scant 5% from its $10.7M debut from 1,611 theaters, the Renee Zellweger hit averaged $4,585 from 2,221 sites. With the additional playdates, Diary's average dipped 31% from last weekend's solid $6,663. After ten days of release, Miramax has collected a terrific $25.3M and with few direct competitors in the weeks ahead (only five wide releases are scheduled to open in May), the R-rated film could generate a strong long-term run. In the United Kingdom, Miramax's overseas partner Universal has taken in a stellar $22M after its second weekend in the top spot in that market.

After three weeks atop the charts, the effects-heavy action film Spy Kids followed closely in the runnerup spot with $10.1M, easing just 20%. With $86.5M taken in thus far, the Robert Rodriguez film might hit the $100M mark by the end of the month. With Bridget Jones's Diary and Spy Kids, Miramax became the first distributor to claim the top two spots at the box office since Universal did it a year ago during the weekend of April 28-30 with the submarine thriller U-571 and the family film The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.

Paramount, another distributor having a banner year, claimed the third and fourth spots with the crime thriller Along Came A Spider and the new comedy Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, respectively. Spider dipped just 24% to $8.8M and has boosted its 17-day total to a robust $46.8M.

Collecting $7.7M from 2,123 theaters, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles debuted with a decent $3,634 average. Paramount, which is only releasing the $25M film domestically, reported that the PG-rated picture attracted lots of families. The first two Crocodile Dundee films were huge blockbusters in the late 1980s grossing $174.8M and $109.3M respectively in the domestic marketplace.

MTV prankster Tom Green saw his new comedy Freddy Got Fingered debut in fifth place with $7.1M in ticket sales. Fox launched the R-rated gross-out flick in 2,271 theaters and averaged a mild $3,126 per site. Freddy got the middle finger from critics and witnessed a 15% drop in sales on Saturday indicating a very short shelf life is in store at the box office. Budgeted at $15M, the comedy which Green also directed skewed "very male" according to the studio's distribution president Bruce Snyder.

Johnny Depp's drug saga Blow followed in sixth with $5.9M, off only 26%, putting its total to date at $35.2M. The David Spade comedy Joe Dirt dipped a reasonable 34% in its second weekend to $5.3M giving it $19.1M in ten days. Budgeted at $16M, the Sony release should find its way to $30-35M.

Fox Searchlight's Kingdom Come placed eighth with $4.2M lifting its ten-day sum to $16.1M. The LL Cool J-Whoopi Goldberg picture carries a negative cost of only $7M and looks to conclude its domestic run with a healthy $25-30M. Josie and the Pussycats dropped 36% to $2.9M in its second gig for a cume of $11.5M in ten days. Universal's heavily-promoted $22M gamble should reach a disappointing $18-20M domestically.

Rounding out the top ten was the solid spring performer Enemy at the Gates with $2M in its sixth weekend giving the Paramount war film $46.4M thus far.

Sony expanded its spy caper The Tailor of Panama from 225 to 359 theaters and grossed $1.6M climbing eight spots to number twelve. The Geoffrey Rush-Pierce Brosnan film has collected $6.8M so far and averaged a solid $4,407 in its fourth weekend.

A pair of films left the top ten over the weekend. Fox's Ashley Judd starrer Someone Like You fell 40% in its fourth frame to $1.6M. With $24.9M in the bank to date, the romantic comedy should conclude with $27-29M.

The animated sequel Pokemon 3 has grossed $15.8M after 17 days of release. A final cume of under $20M is likely which will fall shy of the first Pokemon's $85.7M from 1999 and Pokemon 2000's $43.7M from last summer.

Compared to projections, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles opened very close to my $7M forecast while Freddy Got Fingered debuted a bit below my $9M prediction.

The top ten films grossed $64.2M which was down 9% from last year's Easter frame when U-571 opened at number one with $19.6M; but up a healthy 34% from 1999 when The Matrix reclaimed the top spot with $12.6M.


Take this week's NEW Reader Survey on the May release you most want to see. In last week's survey, readers were asked if Freddy Got Fingered would opened better or worse than Road Trip's $15.5M debut. Of 1,732 responses, 31% said better while 69% correctly thought worse.

Read the Weekly Rewind column which looks back at April 1995. For a review of Freddy Got Fingered visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Driven, The Forsaken, One Night at McCools, and Town and Country all open.

Marketplace: Shop for videos, DVDs, music, books, and electronics at discounted prices using search engines

# Title Apr. 20 - 22 Apr. 13 - 15 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Dist.
1 Bridget Jones's Diary $ 10,184,136 $ 10,733,933 -5.1 2,221 2 $ 4,585 $ 25,316,371 Miramax
2 Spy Kids 10,069,514 12,501,512 -19.5 3,191 4 3,156 86,500,558 Miramax
3 Along Came a Spider 8,753,521 11,527,443 -24.1 2,543 3 3,442 46,758,944 Paramount
4 Crocodile Dundee in LA 7,714,362 2,123 1 3,634 7,714,362 Paramount
5 Freddy Got Fingered 7,098,459 2,271 1 3,126 7,098,459 Fox
6 Blow 5,901,682 8,013,188 -26.4 2,103 3 2,806 35,158,246 New Line
7 Joe Dirt 5,310,836 8,016,008 -33.7 2,638 2 2,013 19,121,953 Sony
8 Kingdom Come 4,209,463 7,562,284 -44.3 1,111 2 3,789 16,063,645 Fox Searchlight
9 Josie and the Pussycats 2,941,695 4,562,455 -35.5 2,558 2 1,150 11,510,035 Universal
10 Enemy at the Gates 2,035,607 2,665,252 -23.6 1,645 6 1,237 46,390,546 Paramount
11 Heartbreakers 1,704,007 2,600,007 -34.5 1,886 5 904 37,304,030 MGM
12 The Tailor of Panama 1,582,052 875,740 80.7 359 4 4,407 6,753,998 Sony
13 Someone Like You 1,553,470 2,602,960 -40.3 1,675 4 927 24,884,847 Fox
14 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 1,416,939 1,884,519 -24.8 1,012 20 1,400 122,744,616 Sony Classics
15 Pokemon 3 1,325,886 2,707,680 -51.0 2,012 3 659 15,754,369 Warner Bros.
16 Memento 1,205,695 926,916 30.1 270 6 4,466 5,238,303 New Market
17 Traffic 1,029,892 1,374,555 -25.1 744 17 1,384 120,617,380 USA Films
18 Exit Wounds 952,419 1,492,290 -36.2 1,005 6 948 49,346,892 Warner Bros.
19 The Brothers 807,841 1,354,527 -40.4 637 5 1,268 25,945,475 Sony
20 Amores Perro 748,734 878,013 -14.7 171 4 4,379 2,190,049 Lions Gate
Top 5 $ 43,819,992 $ 50,792,084 -13.7
Top 10 64,219,275 70,892,715 -9.4
Top 20 76,546,210 84,063,765 -8.9
Top 20 vs. 2000 76,546,210 85,709,634 -10.7

Last Updated : April 23, 2001 at 8:45PM EDT