2001: Nippy News Release Articles

"Pie"-eyed teen audience bums "Rush"
submitted by: Lisa D.
source: Variety
Date: August 13, 2001

By Carl DiOrio

HOLLYWOOD - With New Line's "Rush Hour 2" stuck in summer traffic this weekend, Universal's "American Pie 2" gorged itself on an estimated $45.1 million in box office fast food in the best bow ever for an R-rated laffer.

Second helpings of Universal's "Pie" franchise, though critically lamented, moved New Line's action laffer to second place in the box office chow line, as "Rush Hour 2" dropped a big 53% to an estimated $31.5 million in its sophomore session. The fall-off marked the 10th consecutive session in which the previous weekend's No. 1 picture failed to hold onto box office supremacy.

In contrast with the "Rush Hour 2" crash, Disney's G-rated "The Princess Diaries" booked a modest 38% drop. The Julie Andrews starrer shrugged off unusually thick end-of-season competition, including a "Spy Kids, Special Edition" release from corporate cousin Miramax/Dimension, for a regal $14.1 million in third place. The "Spy Kids" reissue -- out of the top 10 with a paltry $1.4 million -- was so invisible one has to question whether the strategy of hyping the picture's September homevideo debut was worth the re-release's estimated $5 million investment. With 1,676 engagements, "Kids" redux averaged a piddling $847 per venue.

Miramax/Dimension did much better with its other opener, "The Others," as the well-reviewed Nicole Kidman suspenser grossed an estimated $13.7 million at No. 4. Miramax split costs on the estimated $17 million production about evenly with Spanish partner Las Producciones del Escorpion.

Warner Bros.' bowing "Osmosis Jones" continued an abysmal recent track record for animation and live-action mixes (remember February's "Monkeybone?") with $5.6 million in seventh place. Bobby and Peter Farrelly, Hollywood's supposed kings of gross-out comedy, were among producers and directors on "Osmosis," whose negative cost was at least $70 million.

"Unfortunately, it just fell through the cracks," WB distribution president Dan Fellman said.

Industrywide, the weekend's $157 million in total grosses represented a 43% improvement over the same weekend a year ago, according to data from box office tracker ACNielsen EDI. The boffo session also puts summer 2001 10% ahead of the last swimsuit season and 5.5% ahead of 1999's record summer. And the performance means '01 is more than 8% ahead of 2000 in a year-to-date comparison.

Meanwhile, the "Pie" bow was big enough to virtually assure Universal of moving to the top of this year's market-share heap when official numbers are updated this week. It also represented the fourth consecutive No. 1 bow for Universal, which ended last year with a highly unusual five-in-a-row performance.

"Going back to the first sleeper-hit, 'American Pie' set up the success of this one," Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco observed.

Elsewhere, Miramax continued to impress with its other current release -- which like the special "Kids" features never-before-seen footage -- a little Vietnam War pic called "Apocalypse Now Redux." The extended version of Francis Ford Coppola's classic grossed $347,000 in 19 theaters for a spectacular $19,323 average and $525,000 total a week before expanding to top-20 markets.

Fox Searchlight's murder drama "The Deep End" dove into six Gotham and L.A. venues and hauled back $140,487 this weekend for an Olympic-sized $23,415 average and $196,928 total after a Wednesday bow. The picture expands into 50 theaters in top-10 markets Friday.

Searchlight's black comedy "Sexy Beast" approached a $6 million total by grossing another $198,000 from 129 engagements in its eighth weekend. And the Artisan mob laffer "Made" made $430,000 from 129 playdates in its fifth frame of release to move its haul to $3.1 million.

Paramount Classics opened its Cold War refugee drama "American Rhapsody" in seven Gotham and L.A. theaters and grossed $42,000 for a $6,000 per-venue average. United Artists' black comedy "Ghost World" spun another $350,000 from 34 locations for a full-blooded $10,261 average and $1.3 million tally.

Fine Line's transsexual musical "Hedwig & the Angry Inc" measured $250,000 in expanding four venues to a total 50. That marks a per-venue average of $5,000 a week before the picture's scheduled expansion to more than 80 playdates. The total stands at almost $1.2 million.