Weekend Box Office (October 24 - 26, 2003)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND  Fans were in the mood for laughter this weekend as Scary Movie 3 beat back all the competition with a massive opening frame.  The inspired-by-a-true-story Radio did decent business while Beyond Borders died on impact.

The Dimension horror spoof Scary Movie 3 opened to a towering $48.1M this weekend, almost tripling the take of this weekend's number two film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Scary 3, which had a per screen average of $13,735, easily outpaced the previous two films in the franchise: 2000's original which opened to $42.3M and 2001's sequel which opened to $20.5M.  Scary 3 now holds the record for the highest opening in the month of October, trouncing 2002's Red Dragon, which opened to $36.5M.  Consumers were obviously in the mood for comedy and with School of Rock in its fourth weekend of release and Good Boy! playing to a younger audience, fans chose Scary Movie 3 for their comedy needs.  The PG-13 rating also allowed a broader audience, as the first two films in the series were both rated R.

Landing in second place after its strong number one opening last weekend was the horror remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Down an understandable 48.5% from last weekend, the New Line release took in $14.5M this weekend, bringing its cume to $50.9M.  Look for the $9M budgeted film to reach $85-90M by the end of its run and maybe even flirt with the $100M mark.

The Sony release Radio, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris opened in third place with a haul of $13.3M.  Opening on 3,074 screens, the true-life story about the friendship between two very different people averaged a decent $4,328 and has some Oscar talk for Gooding Jr. surrounding it. 

The other new release this weekend was the Angelina Jolie starrer Beyond Borders. The film, which takes place over the period of twelve years and follows the characters as they go from one war-torn country to another, had a very poor weekend, taking in $2M from 1,798 screens for a per-screen average of $1,154, good enough for only eleventh place this weekend.  Jolie hasn't had a hit since 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, as her last few films, Original Sin ($6.4M opening in 2001), Life or Something Like It ($6.2M in 2002), and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life ($21.7 in 2003) all underperformed at the box office.  Her private life has gotten more press in recent years than her professional life and Jolie desperately needs a hit if she wants to keep the box office clout she got from her Oscar win and the original Tomb Raider.

In fourth place was the all-star cast of Runaway Jury with $8.4M.  Falling only 28.6% from last weekend, Jury's cume now stands at $24M, with a final gross in the $50-55M range likely.  In fifth place, with the smallest drop in the top ten was the Clint Eastwood-directed Mystic River.  Dropping a slim 25.4% from last weekend, River picked up $7.8M this weekend, bringing its total so far to $24.7M.

Jack Black and the School of Rock landed in sixth place this weekend with $6.5M.  Dropping 40.7%, its largest so far, Rock's cume now stands at $63.4M.  In seventh place was Kill Bill with $6.3M.  Dropping 48.8% from last weekend (the largest drop in the top ten) , the Quentin Tarantino-helmed flick now has a total gross of $54M.

In eighth place was Good Boy! which barked up another $5M, bringing its cume to $32M.  In ninth was Intolerable Cruelty, which took in $3.6M, bringing its total to $28.2M  And rounding out the top ten in its fifth weekend of release was Under the Tuscan Sun, which brought home $2.3M, bringing its total to $37.2M.

In limited release news, Disney's Brother Bear had a massive opening from just 2 screens, racking up an impressive $291,940, for a per screen average of $145,970.  Bear opens nationwide on Saturday, November 1st.  Two other films debuted in limited release with solid openings.  Sony's In The Cut, starring Meg Ryan, opened on 6 screens and brought in $97,625 for an average of  $16,270, bringing its total since opening on Wednesday to $131,413.  And Fine Line's Elephant also opened on 6 screens taking in $93,356 for a per screen average of $15,559.

The top ten grossed $115.9M, up 77% from 2002 when Jackass: The Movie topped the charts with $22.7M, and up 71% from 2001 when K-Pax led the way with $17.2M.

Compared to projections, Scary Movie 3 blasted past my $30M prediction, while Beyond Borders couldn't hit my $7M forecast.  Radio came close to my $12M projection.

For a review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Brother Bear opens wide.

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

# Title Oct 24 - 26 Oct 17 - 19 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Scary Movie 3 $ 48,113,770 3,503 1 $ 13,735 $ 48,113,770 Miramax
2 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 14,468,555 28,094,014 -48.5 3,018 2 4,794 50,919,462 New Line
3 Radio 13,303,724 3,074 1 4,328 13,303,724 Sony
4 Runaway Jury 8,446,650 11,836,705 -28.6 2,815 2 3,001 24,057,433 Fox
5 Mystic River 7,787,255 10,445,547 -25.4 1,493 3 5,216 24,733,033 Warner Bros.
6 School of Rock 6,521,355 11,006,233 -40.7 2,951 4 2,210 63,392,926 Paramount
7 Kill Bill Vol. 1 6,355,590 12,424,841 -48.8 2,633 3 2,414 54,037,681 Miramax
8 Good Boy! 5,065,102 8,932,472 -43.3 2,762 3 1,834 32,104,866 MGM
9 Intolerable Cruelty 3,629,860 6,515,010 -44.3 2,290 3 1,585 28,252,815 Universal
10 Under the Tuscan Sun 2,287,114 3,379,245 -32.3 1,224 5 1,869 37,249,294 Buena Vista
11 Beyond Borders 2,076,402 1,798 1 1,155 2,076,402 Paramount
12 Out of Time 1,541,684 4,002,023 -61.5 1,565 4 985 37,784,098 MGM
13 Lost in Translation 1,483,166 1,903,194 -22.1 568 7 2,611 23,111,364 Focus
14 The Rundown 1,003,900 2,780,695 -63.9 1,128 5 890 46,194,665 Universal
15 Secondhand Lions 997,905 1,884,995 -47.1 986 6 1,012 39,960,250 New Line
16 Luther 500,025 378,213 32.2 177 5 2,825 4,425,567 R.S. Ent.
17 Pirates of the Caribbean 482,013 653,715 -26.3 379 16 1,272 301,243,790 Buena Vista
18 Finding Nemo 435,507 511,514 -14.9 404 22 1,078 338,746,985 Buena Vista
19 House of the Dead 379,848 1,763,212 -78.5 798 3 476 9,781,518 Artisan
20 The Fighting Temptations 342,524 1,034,764 -66.9 452 6 758 29,329,798 Paramount
Top 5 $ 92,119,954 $ 73,807,340 24.8
Top 10 115,978,975 99,416,785 16.7
Top 20 125,221,949 109,338,650 14.5
Top 20 vs. 2002 125,221,949 99,172,135 26.3

Last Updated : October 27, 2003 at 10:30PM EDT