| THIS WEEKEND
Studios have been saying for the
last two years that they are cutting back on their production slates. But
you couldn't tell by looking at this month's release schedule. A staggering
15 motion pictures are set to invade theaters in wide release by the end
of March, including five films which all open simultaneously on Friday.
With so many titles in such a short window of time, the industry might
just have to call upon Tom Hanks to seek out and retrieve all the casualties
that are sure to pile up. In addition to all the freshmen films, the box
office this weekend will get a boost from the force of the new Star
Wars trailer that premieres. Plus, Universal
will offer sneak previews in selected markets for its promising Ron Howard
comedy Ed-TV
on Saturday. With all this activity, theaters are sure to be busy on this
last full weekend before the Oscars and will try to post a rare sales increase
over last year's Titanic-driven
box office frame.
Young males are being asked to take a trip to Chinatown in New Line's new action cop flick The Corruptor starring Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg. The Hong Kong action hero and the former underwear model turn up the heat as partners in a war against crime. Chow Yun-Fat made his U.S. debut last year in The Replacement Killers which opened with $8M in January while Wahlberg entered the world of slickly-packaged action films with The Big Hit which shot straight to number one last April with a $10.8M debut. Together, they become a team that many moviegoers will like to see on the big screen. While the storyline is nothing fancy, people will be buying their tickets to see these two stars. New Line's advertising has been very good on The Corruptor which should be of no surprise since they certainly know how to sell movies to young men. Though he has been a huge star in Asia for some time, Chow Yun-Fat has yet to reach his potential in North America and this film should help increase his exposure. The marketplace lately has seen its share of star-driven action films like Payback and 8MM, but one with newer and younger heroes could really work right now. Of course, fellow newcomer Wing Commander might take a small bite out of the young male audience that New Line would like all to itself. But, the combination of Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg should be enough to bring out many moviegoers in the short term to see The Corruptor giving the film a debut of around $10M.
Michelle Pfeiffer returns to the screen in the long-delayed drama The Deep End of the Ocean which also stars Treat Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. Based on the best selling novel, the Sony film features Pfeiffer as a mother whose young son disappears but is reunited with him nine years later. Deep End has garnered good reviews, especially for Pfeiffer's performance. The target audience for this picture would be adults over 25 with special emphasis on females. Pfeiffer has certainly proven that she can add major box office muscle to a film but has also shown signs of slowing in the last few years. Her last feature, A Thousand Acres, tanked with an opening of just $2.9M. The combination of Michelle Pfeiffer's starpower and the fact that the film is adapted from a popular book should allow Sony to see a respectable opening this weekend. However, dramas aimed at mature women do not exactly ignite the box office. Some recent movies aimed at this audience include Beloved with Oprah Winfrey ($8.2M debut), One True Thing with Meryl Streep ($6.6M), Twilight with Susan Sarandon ($5.8M), and Sharon Stone's Gloria ($2.1M). Fortunately, Pfeiffer provides solid commercial strength to Deep End and should allow it to open on the higher end of the spectrum. Launching in about 1,900 theaters nationwide, The Deep End of the Ocean could sail away with an opening weekend gross in the area of $9M.
Warping into theaters Friday is the futuristic adventure film Wing Commander which features a young cast of future stars like Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard who were most recently seen together in the high school hit comedy She's All That. Based on the popular video game, Wing Commander is packed with special effects and hopes to help curb the intense hunger Star Wars fans have built up waiting for their prequel. In fact, many may buy tickets to Wing Commander this weekend in hopes to see the new trailer for The Phantom Menace which some believe is playing exclusively with the Fox sci-fi film, when in fact the trailer will be attached to a wide assortment of pictures. Overall, Wing Commander does not pack a huge punch but should see some decent traffic this weekend due in part to the Star Wars factor. An opening of around $6M could be in the works. Horror fans will have the chance to try out The Rage : Carrie 2, a sequel to Brian De Palma's 1976 original fright classic. This is a horror sequel nobody asked for and the weekend ticket sales will prove that point. The Rage should fly low on the box office radar though its only real commercial advantage is being the lone horror entry around. Still there is little reason for fans of the genre to pay top dollar now and not just rent it on video a few months down the road. If nothing else, the movie is a bandwagon picture trying to cash in on the teen horror boom of the last two years. It's too little, too late. Lacking commercial firepower, The Rage : Carrie 2 should bring in sales of about $4M this weekend. Sony offers up a donation to the family film marketplace with the talking tot movie Baby Geniuses. There is no reason to believe this picture will make a dent in the box office this weekend. With little starpower and poor marketing, it is surprising that the studio plans to launch Baby Geniuses in as many as 1,500 cribs. Even more surprising is that the studio is launching this film the same weekend as its more high profile release The Deep End of the Ocean which also aims for motherly moviegoers. The cute gimmick of talking babies might attract some families, but overall Baby Geniuses will be lucky to gross $2M this weekend.
As if five new motion pictures aren't enough for exhibitors to handle this weekend, Fox and Lucasfilm will deploy an armada of new trailers for Star Wars : The Phantom Menace in theaters across the United States and Canada along with new one-sheet posters. Contrary to speculation, the new trailer will run with many different films from various distributors and not exclusively with Fox's Wing Commander. With the release of Episode 1 just ten weeks away, the feeding frenzy should lead to extra traffic at the multiplexes as diehard fans get the chance to see the new footage and new characters in widescreen format with stereo sound. To many Star Wars fanatics, that's worth the rising price of admission alone. Sophomore holdovers look to have varying weekends at the box office. Analyze This debuted with a powerful $18.4M last weekend and is pleasing moviegoers. A very good hold of about 30% should be in order giving the De Niro-Crystal comedy about $13M this weekend allowing it to retain its box office crown with $37M over its first ten days. Cruel Intentions should decline by more, maybe 40%, and finish the period with around $8M giving it a ten-day gross of $24M. Take this week's Reader
Survey on upcoming films based on Spider-Man and The X-Men. Be sure
to read the NEW Weekly Rewind column which
reviews the box office record of Michelle Pfeiffer. For a review of Cruel
Intentions visit Chief's
Movie Review Page. LAST YEAR On a collision course with Academy Award night, James Cameron's Titanic fended off its toughest competitor to date when The Man in the Iron Mask, which also starred Leonardo DiCaprio, came within striking distance of unseating the megablockbuster from its number one spot. Paramount and MGM/UA each projected a $17.5M weekend estimate but when final Sunday receipts were counted, Titanic's $17.6M edged out Iron Mask's $17.3M debut as each played in a massive 3,100+ theaters. Iron Mask, the frame's sole newcomer, swashbuckled its way to a final domestic tally of $57M and hauled in over $183M worldwide. Proving DiCaprio's sudden global fame, a whopping 69% of the film's overall gross came from foreign markets. Rounding out the top five, U.S. Marshals collected $11.4M in its sophomore frame, Oscar contender Good Will Hunting took $4.8M, and runaway hit The Wedding Singer grossed $4.7M.
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This column is updated three times each week : Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday (post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday night (actuals). Source : EDI, Exhibitor Relations. Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of the author. Last Updated : March 11, 1999 at 9:00AM
EST Written by Gitesh Pandya |
