Weekend Box Office (December 6 - 8, 2002)

By Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND The game of 'Who wants to be number one?' continued this week as Die Another Day reclaimed the top spot at the box office while Analyze That had a disappointing second place finish and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets settled for third.

James Bond bounced back to number one this weekend as Die Another Day dropped a reasonable 58.6% picking up $12.8M according to final figures. Its cume now stands at $120.2M. By the end of next weekend it should pass 1999's The World is Not Enough to become the highest grossing film in the Bond series. Since Pierce Brosnan took over the role of 007, each film has made increasingly more money. Some of that can be attributed to higher ticket costs but it also goes to show the durability of the franchise and the popularity of Brosnan as the world famous spy.  

Landing in second place was the Warner Bros. comedy Analyze That starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. Analyze That stole $11M, giving it a so-so per screen average of $4,188. Those that saw the movie also felt so-so about it as CinemaScore.com viewers gave it a B grade. A sequel to the surprise 1999 hit Analyze This, the question coming into the weekend was whether or not Analyze That was a necessary sequel. Looking back to its release in March of 1999, Analyze This didn't have a lot of competition in the marketplace with films such as The Rage: Carrie 2, Cruel Intentions, Baby Geniuses and Forces of Nature being its main competitors. This time around De Niro and company had to face powerhouses Bond and Potter as well as the usual post-Thanksgiving lull and just didn't have the juice to breakthrough to audiences. A final gross in the $40-50M range seems likely.

Flying in on broomsticks and tumbling into third place was another Warner Bros. release, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets which took in $10.1M this weekend. Falling nearly 69% from last weekend's three-day totals, the biggest drop in the top ten, Chamber of Secrets is depreciating much quicker than its predecessor and it would be a struggle to reach the $300M mark. Its total now stands at $214M, so a final cume in the $250-275 range seems more likely, still impressive for any film, especially a sequel to a hit film that only came out a year ago.

Opening strongly in fourth place this weekend was the Universal distributed Empire, starring John Leguizamo. Bringing in $6.3M from only 867 screens, its per screen average of $7,245 was tops in the top ten. Universal focused its promotion on urban markets and scored pretty well as a reported 51% of audiences were Hispanic. Viewers from CinemaScore.com gave the film a disppointing C+ average grade, but men under 21 gave the film an A rating.

In fifth place with $5.5M, is the Disney bomb, Treasure Planet. Falling 54% from last weekend, Planet's cume now stands at a paltry $23.6M. In sixth place was another Disney release, The Santa Clause 2 with $5.3M, bringing its cume to a strong $120.1M. And in seventh place was Adam Sandler's 8 Crazy Nights which dropped 48.5% from last weekend, the best hold in the top ten, to $4.8M. Its total now stands at $20M.

The rest of the top ten looked like this: At number eight was the Ice Cube vehicle Friday After Next which took in $2.8M bringing its cume to $29.1; in ninth fellow rapper Eminem's debut film 8 Mile brought in $2.5M bringing its cume to $111.2M; and in tenth place another member of the $100M club, DreamWorks horror/thriller The Ring which scared up another $2.5M bringing its cume to $123.3M

Falling out of the top ten after one week were a pair of films: Solaris which fell 65% to $2.3M bringing its total to a not-so-out-of-this-world $13.2M and They which also took in $2.3M for a cume of $10.8M. A final gross in the $20M range for each is likely to result. And in limited release the Sony Oscar contender Adaptation opened on 7 screens to $384,478 for a powerful per screen average of $54,925. It came very close to matching the gross of the sci-fi flick Equilibrium which opened on 301 screens to a gross of only $541,512.

Compared to my projections Analyze That came in at half of what I projected while Empire more than doubled my prediction.

For reviews of Die Another Day, Analyze That and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets visit The Chief Report.

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# Title Dec 6 - 8 Nov 29 - Dec 1 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Die Another Day $ 12,843,007 $ 31,010,183 -58.6 3,347 3 3,837 $ 120,207,399 MGM
2 Analyze That 11,034,422 2,635 1 4,188 11,034,422 Warner Bros.
3 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 10,086,264 32,117,496 -68.6 3,387 4 2,978 213,970,962 Warner Bros.
4 Empire 6,281,415 867 1 7,245 6,281,415 Universal
5 Treasure Planet 5,547,431 12,083,248 -54.1 3,227 2 1,719 23,650,217 Buena Vista
6 The Santa Clause 2 5,327,205 12,133,257 -56.1 2,356 6 2,261 120,141,388 Buena Vista
7 Eight Crazy Nights 4,854,255 9,434,175 -48.5 2,503 2 1,939 20,044,450 Sony
8 Friday After Next 2,800,165 7,363,181 -62.0 1,450 3 1,931 29,117,661 New Line
9 8 Mile 2,548,975 5,758,815 -55.7 2,015 5 1,265 111,179,170 Universal
10 The Ring 2,519,379 5,261,634 -52.1 1,642 8 1,534 123,312,326 DreamWorks
11 Solaris 2,354,888 6,752,722 -65.1 2,406 2 979 13,222,112 Fox
12 They 2,346,792 5,144,090 -54.4 1,623 2 1,446 10,822,384 Miramax
13 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2,013,029 3,985,057 -49.5 1,257 34 1,601 213,263,148 IFC Films
14 The Emperor's Club 1,545,405 3,523,795 -56.1 807 3 1,915 11,656,345 Universal
15 Frida 1,251,136 2,125,156 -41.1 621 7 2,015 17,061,523 Miramax
16 Far From Heaven 945,818 1,639,138 -42.3 286 5 3,307 6,889,619 Focus
17 Extreme Ops 780,654 2,233,525 -65.0 1,800 2 434 4,373,684 Paramount
18 Bowling for Columbine 629,154 966,682 -34.9 246 9 2,558 12,875,296 MGM/UA
19 Equilibrium 541,512 301 1 1,799 541,512 Miramax
20 El Crimen del Padre Amaro 402,465 700,103 -42.5 122 4 3,299 3,084,409 IDP
Top 5 $ 45,792,539 $ 96,778,359 -52.7
Top 10 63,842,518 127,058,801 -49.8
Top 20 76,653,371 144,766,231 -47.1
Top 20 vs. 2001 76,653,371 85,182,179 -10.0

Last Updated : December 9, 2002 at 7:00PM EST