Weekend Box Office (October 31 - November 2, 2003)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND  Scary Movie 3 hung on to the top spot at the box office this weekend, while most of the movies in the top ten had strong holdovers, but Brother Bear would have been number one had it opened wide on Friday instead of Saturday.

Dropping a large 58% from last weekend, the spoof comedy Scary Movie 3 remained at number one for a second straight weekend.  Collecting $20M, according to final studio figures, Scary 3's percentage drop was larger than the drops of the two previous films in the franchise, with Scary Movie falling 38.1% and Scary Movie 2 falling 53.4%.  However, all you Scary Movie fans out there, Scary Movie 4 is already in the works.  With a total cume to date of $77.5M, look for Scary Movie 3 to end its run with around $120-125M.

Coming in with a strong second place showing was the Disney animated adventure, Brother Bear.  After a stellar limited opening last weekend, Bear expanded nationwide on Saturday, dooming its hopes for a first place finish.  Bear made $19.4M over the 2-day period, for a per screen average of $6,404, tops in the top 10.  Had the movie opened on Friday, Bear would have easily taken the top spot, which would have been very useful in advertising over the next week, especially as holdovers need to position themselves as viable alternatives to The Matrix Revolutions, which unspools worldwide on Wednesday.

Landing in third place was the horror remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with a take of $10.8M.  Falling only 25.2% from last weekend, Massacre's total cume now stands at $66M.  In fourth place was the true story of Radio, which took in $9.6M, a drop of only 27.5%.  The total for the Cuba Gooding Jr./Ed Harris film is now $26.8M.  A final gross in the $50-55M range seems likely.

The two films with the lowest percentage drops in the top ten landed in fifth and sixth place this weekend.  In fifth was the legal thriller, Runaway Jury, which fell a small 22.7% from last weekend to $6.5M.  Its cume is now $33.3M.  And in sixth place was Mystic River, which fell 20% to a weekend gross of $6.2M.  The total for the Clint Eastwood-directed film is now $33.5M.

Seventh and eighth place belong to two members of the $60M club.  In seventh was the first half of Quentin Tarantino's fourth film, Kill Bill, which took in $4.529M this weekend, bringing its cume to $60.8M.  In eighth place was School of Rock, which brought in $4.522M this weekend.  The total for the Jack Black comedy is now $69.2M.

In ninth place was Intolerable Cruelty, which took in $2.5M, bringing its total to $31.9M.  And rounding out the top ten was the canine comedy Good Boy! which barked up $2.2M this weekend, bringing its cume to $35.2M.

Outside of the top ten, the Meg Ryan drama In The Cut expanded into 825 theaters this weekend and came in at number eleven with a total of $2M, for a per screen average of $2,501.  Opening in limited release was the Anthony Hopkins/Nicole Kidman drama The Human Stain, which brought in $1.08M from 160 screens, for an average of $6,463.  And the re-release of Alien scared up $1.02M, bringing its total from its Wednesday debut to $1.3M.

Compared to projections, Brother Bear came in slightly higher than my $18M prediction, Alien: The Director's Cut came in on target with my $1M projection, while In The Cut came in a little below my $4M forecast.

The top 10 was down 11.7% from last year when The Santa Clause 2 opened up on top with $29M, and down 33.2% from 2001 when Monsters, Inc. exploded at number one with $62.5M.

For a review of The Matrix Revolutions, visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Elf and a little film called The Matrix Revolutions both open.

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

# Title Oct 31 - Nov 2 Oct 24 - 26 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Scary Movie 3 $ 20,017,468 $ 48,113,770 -58.4 3,505 2 $ 5,711 $ 77,540,714 Miramax
2 Brother Bear 19,421,183 291,940 3,030 2 6,410 19,802,809 Buena Vista
3 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 10,818,401 14,468,555 -25.2 2,970 3 3,643 66,047,114 New Line
4 Radio 9,638,693 13,303,724 -27.5 3,074 2 3,136 26,245,062 Sony
5 Runaway Jury 6,525,082 8,446,650 -22.7 2,736 3 2,385 33,315,320 Fox
6 Mystic River 6,232,376 7,787,255 -20.0 1,551 4 4,018 33,546,588 Warner Bros.
7 Kill Bill Vol. 1 4,529,607 6,355,590 -28.7 2,429 4 1,865 60,801,929 Miramax
8 School of Rock 4,522,814 6,521,355 -30.6 2,786 5 1,623 69,244,526 Paramount
9 Intolerable Cruelty 2,499,805 3,629,860 -31.1 1,661 4 1,505 31,897,330 Universal
10 Good Boy! 2,262,583 5,065,102 -55.3 2,415 4 937 35,258,470 MGM
11 In The Cut 2,063,361 97,625 825 2 2,501 2,239,702 Sony
12 Under the Tuscan Sun 1,694,685 2,287,114 -25.9 1,142 6 1,484 39,828,642 Buena Vista
13 Lost in Translation 1,233,218 1,483,166 -16.9 522 8 2,362 24,844,796 Focus
14 Out of Time 1,082,591 1,541,684 -29.8 1,096 5 988 39,314,901 MGM
15 The Human Stain 1,034,195 160 1 6,464 1,034,195 Miramax
16 Alien: The Director's Cut 1,023,665 347 1 2,950 1,287,560 Fox
17 Beyond Borders 1,016,184 2,076,402 -51.1 1,798 2 565 3,817,474 Paramount
18 Secondhand Lions 665,205 997,905 -33.3 794 7 838 40,936,132 New Line
19 The Rundown 500,320 1,003,900 -50.2 575 6 870 46,971,230 Universal
20 Luther 441,288 500,025 -11.7 216 6 2,043 4,899,246 RS Ent.
Top 5 $ 66,420,827 $ 92,119,954 -27.9
Top 10 86,468,012 115,978,975 -25.5
Top 20 97,222,724 125,221,949 -22.4
Top 20 vs. 2002 97,222,724 110,574,196 -12.1

Last Updated : November 3, 2003 at 7:00PM EST