Weekend Box Office (June 25 - 27, 1999)

THIS WEEKEND Adam Sandler has done it again as his latest comedic adventure Big Daddy opened at number one this weekend with a blistering $41.5M making it the highest grossing weekend for a non-sequel comedy.  With this monster opening, Sandler has solidified himself as one of the top comic actors working today.

The $41.5M opening for Big Daddy makes this Sandler's biggest opening weekend to date, outpacing last November's The Waterboy which opened with $39.4M.  It is also the second highest opening for a comedy behind Austin Powers 2 which opened with $57.4M earlier this month, and becomes the third highest opening weekend for distributor Sony behind only Men In Black ($51.1M in July of 1997) and Godzilla ($44M in May of 1998).  With this opening and with the 4th of July weekend upcoming, Big Daddy should be able to cruise by the $100M mark and head towards the $161.5M total gross of The Waterboy.

Swinging its way into second place this weekend was Disney's Tarzan which roped (vined?) its way to  $24M bringing it's total to an ape like $77.5M after two weeks.  Down a very respectable 29.7% from last weekend, Tarzan looks to be able to top last years Mulan which ended up with $120.6M.  Shagging his way into third place this weekend was the Mike Myers comedy Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me.  Off 41.6%, Austin managed to shhh his way to $18.3M bringing his cume to a huge $150.6M in only 3 weeks.  Looks like we'll be seeing a few more Austin sequels in the years to come.  Arriving in fourth place this weekend was the John Travolta thriller The General's Daughter, with $15.2M bringing its total to $46.8M.  Rounding out the top 5 was Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.  Dropping only 25.1% to $14.1M, Menace has now reached an out of this world total of $351.6M, ranking it number 5 all time ahead of Forrest Gump ($329M) and just behind Jurassic Park ($357M).  It should pass Jurassic some time this week, and set its sights on number 3, E.T. ($399M). 

Outside of the top 5, Notting Hill landed at number 6, bringing its total to $89.5M, The Mummy scared up another $2.1M to bring its horrifying total to $146M, and Instinct dropped 39.7% this weekend with another $1.9M bringing its total to a somewhat disappointing $30.6M.

There was a surprising entry at number 9 this week as the Miramax film An Ideal Husband managed to crack the top 10 while playing on only 122 screens.  Its average of $9,338 was the second highest in the top 10, behind only Big Daddy.  Rounding out the top 10 was The Matrix.  The Keanu "whoa" Reeves sci-fi adventure picked up another $1M to bring it's robust total to $165.7M.  On an Oscar note, Shakespeare in Love managed to make another $74,703 to bring it to $97.8M, just outside the elusive $100M club.  And in limited release, the critically acclaimed Run Lola Run picked up $217,1222 on just 19 screens for an impressive per screen average of $11,427.

Compared to the Guru's projections, Big Daddy came in right as predicted, as did Tarzan, Austin Powers 2 and The General's Daughter.

In last week's survey, readers were asked which of five actors was the most bankable box office star today. Of 6,812 responses, 26.7% selected Harrison Ford, 25.7% chose Jim Carrey, 17.9% picked Mel Gibson, 15.3% went with Tom Hanks, while Tom Cruise brought up the rear with 14.4% of the vote.

Be sure to read the Weekly Rewind column which lists the top-grossing blockbusters of all time. For a review of Big Daddy visit Chief's Movie Review Page.

The top ten films over the weekend grossed $125.M which was up 26% from last year when Doctor Dolittle opened with $29M, and up 35% from 1997 when Face/Off debuted on top with $23.4M.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Wild Wild West, South Park, and Summer of Sam ignite the Independence Day weekend box office.

# Title June 25 - 27 June 18 - 20 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Dist.
1 Big Daddy $ 41,536,370 3,027 1 $ 13,722 $ 41,536,370 Sony
2 Tarzan 24,055,796 34,221,968 -29.7 3,049 2 7,890 77,575,147 Buena Vista
3 Austin Powers 2 18,338,740 31,406,630 -41.6 3,314 3 5,534 150,646,048 New Line
4 The General's Daughter 15,178,374 22,332,053 -32.0 2,858 2 5,311 46,817,096 Paramount
5 Star Wars : Episode I 14,111,919 18,859,021 -25.2 3,126 6 4,514 351,669,681 Fox
6 Notting Hill 5,527,440 6,909,280 -20.0 2,560 5 2,159 89,510,375 Universal
7 The Mummy 2,172,945 3,206,500 -32.2 1,825 8 1,191 146,033,465 Universal
8 Instinct 1,942,612 3,224,513 -39.8 1,814 4 1,071 30,675,154 Buena Vista
9 An Ideal Husband 1,139,316 198,802 473.1 122 2 9,339 1,457,130 Miramax
10 The Matrix 1,011,566 1,315,856 -23.1 1,139 13 888 165,688,406 Warner Bros.
11 Entrapment 826,601 1,347,539 -38.7 1,062 9 778 83,561,270 Fox
12 The Red Violin 732,707 181,749 303.1 250 2 2,931 3,291,024 Lions Gate
13 Tea With Mussolini 641,530 614,000 4.5 283 7 2,267 9,709,993 MGM/UA
14 Never Been Kissed 294,824 348,758 -15.5 533 11 553 53,290,077 Fox
15 Analyze This 267,840 368,038 -27.2 497 16 539 105,967,087 Warner Bros.
16 T-Rex 267,536 285,558 -6.3 32 36 8,361 16,505,579 Imax
17 Life 256,520 330,240 -22.3 424 10 605 62,545,534 Universal
18 Limbo 238,743 220,249 8.4 96 3 2,487 1,061,012 Sony
19 Buena Vista Social Club 234,308 187,298 25.1 29 3 8,080 963,476 Artisan
20 The Winslow Boy 226,345 241,789 -6.4 121 8 1,871 2,557,809 Sony Classics
Top 5 $ 113,221,199 $ 113,728,952 -0.4
Top 10 125,015,078 123,437,360 1.3
Top 20 129,002,032 126,384,072 2.1

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Last Updated : June 28, 1999 at 11:30PM EDT

Written by Sujit Chawla