Weekend Box Office (October 10 - 12, 2003)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND Quentin Tarantino's return to the big screen took the box office crown this weekend, while Jack Black held off stiff competition from a trio of other newcomers to hold on to second.

Kill Bill sliced and diced its way to the top of the charts this weekend, bringing in $22M, according to final figures. Its per screen average was a solid, if not spectacular, $7,120. With cult and mainstream classics like Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction under his belt, any Quentin Tarantino film is destined to become a must-see film. However, both of those films came out years ago, and fans, while interested in the current release, are going to be more hesitant to fork over their hard earned money until they find out if their friends liked the film. Next weekend will be the true test of whether or not the plan of splitting this movie into two parts was smart.

Holding strongly on to second place with the lowest percentage drop in the top 10 was the Jack Black comedy School of Rock. Falling only 21% from last weekend, the Paramount release rocked to the tune of $15.5M this weekend, bringing its total to $39.6M. Look for School of Rock to ends its run with a solid $85-95M.

Landing in third place was the weekend's second new release, Good Boy!, which took in $13M over the weekend. Playing in over 3200 theaters, the MGM film that asks the question, what if dogs ruled the planet, was the widest release this weekend. Averaging a decent $4,064 per theater, Good Boy! shared the family audience with School of Rock to strong results.

In fourth place was the George Clooney/Catherine Zeta-Jones starrer, Intolerable Cruelty. The film, produced and directed by critical darlings the Coen Brothers, took in $12.5M this weekend, for a per screen average of a so-so $4,884. With the star power behind the film, the opening weekend has to be considering slightly disappointing, but strong word-of-mouth could help the overall totals in the weeks to come.

In fifth place was last weeks runner-up, Out of Time. Falling a somewhat disturbing 47% from last weekend, the Denzel Washington thriller took in $8.6M this weekend, bringing its cume to $28.7M. Look for the film to end its run with $50-60M.

The horror film, House of the Dead entered the marketplace in sixth place this weekend, scaring up $5.7M, for a per screen average of $3,739. With the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre entering theaters soon, look for House of the Dead to fade fast.

The rest of the top ten looked like this: The Rundown slipped another 46% from last weekend, raking in $5.2M this weekend, bringing its total to $40M. In eighth place was the Diane Lane Oscar-bait film, Under the Tuscan Sun, which fell 36% from last weekend, bringing its cume to $28M. In ninth place was Secondhand Lions which took in $3.3M this weekend, bringing its total to $35.4. And rounding out the top ten was more Oscar-bait in the form of Lost in Translation, which took in $2.8M this weekend, bringing its cume to $18.1M.

Compared to projections, Kill Bill opened a few notches above Gitesh's $20M forecast while Intolerable Cruelty came in a little below his $14M prediction. Good Boy! was slightly higher than his $12M projection, while Gitesh was dead-on with his $6M prediction for House of the Dead.

For reviews of School of Rock and Out of Time visit The Chief Report.

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# Title Oct 10 - 12 Oct 3 - 5 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Kill Bill Vol. 1 $ 22,089,322 3,102 1 $ 7,121 $ 22,089,322 Miramax
2 School of Rock 15,487,832 19,622,714 -21.1 2,929 2 5,288 39,671,396 Paramount
3 Good Boy! 13,107,022 3,225 1 4,064 13,107,022 MGM
4 Intolerable Cruelty 12,525,075 2,564 1 4,885 12,525,075 Universal
5 Out of Time 8,590,001 16,185,316 -46.9 3,076 2 2,793 28,711,637 MGM
6 House of the Dead 5,683,280 1,520 1 3,739 5,683,280 Artisan
7 The Rundown 5,208,445 9,682,780 -46.2 2,823 3 1,845 40,288,790 Universal
8 Under the Tuscan Sun 4,911,328 7,682,053 -36.1 1,701 3 2,887 28,307,921 Buena Vista
9 Secondhand Lions 3,297,211 5,183,674 -36.4 2,563 4 1,286 35,384,339 New Line
10 Lost in Translation 2,822,419 4,163,333 -32.2 882 5 3,200 18,121,154 Focus
11 Underworld 2,288,092 5,068,277 -54.9 1,906 4 1,200 48,774,585 Sony
12 The Fighting Temptations 1,910,356 3,386,543 -43.6 1,168 4 1,636 27,228,139 Paramount
13 Cold Creek Manor 1,078,319 2,511,141 -57.1 1,163 4 927 20,196,771 Buena Vista
14 Once Upon A Time in Mexico 1,065,247 2,626,304 -59.4 1,131 5 942 55,010,855 Sony
15 Pirates of the Caribbean 1,022,122 1,629,244 -37.3 801 14 1,276 299,468,874 Buena Vista
16 Matchstick Men 881,410 2,267,466 -61.1 1,021 5 863 35,775,075 Warner Bros.
17 Mystic River 640,815 13 1 49,293 828,422 Warner Bros.
18 Duplex 637,765 2,214,920 -71.2 961 3 664 9,189,143 Miramax
19 Finding Nemo 626,484 659,505 -5.0 540 20 1,160 337,367,455 Buena Vista
20 Cabin Fever 367,834 1,090,054 -66.3 437 5 842 20,531,672 Lions Gate
Top 5 $ 71,799,252 $ 58,356,537 23.0
Top 10 93,721,935 76,112,135 23.1
Top 20 104,240,379 87,435,244 19.2
Top 20 vs. 2002 104,240,379 100,600,445 3.6

Last Updated : October 13, 2003 at 8:00PM EDT

Gitesh Pandya can be seen each Friday on "The Biz" airing at 12:30pm and 9:30pm ET on CNNfn.