June 18th, 2002

America "Doos" Scooby

Whoa, here was a major shocker. In first place this weekend was the live-action feature film version of the classic and semi-beloved cartoon Scooby-Doo. Even more shocking, it broke June box office records with a whopping 54.2 million. A sequel is already underway for two summers from now, and Warner said it would be happy if the film debuted with numbers in the mid 30s. Given the lack of kid's entertainment out now, and that Scooby does have a strong following from adults too, maybe it's not that much of a surprise... but sure is a summer success story for Warner.

In second, after many delays, came Doug Liman's entry into the big blockbuster action drama The Bourne Identitity. It scored a pretty healthy 27.1 million, but another delayed film, Windtalkers, just plain tanked with 14.5 million. MGM is really hurting... in fourth was The Sum Of All Fears with 13.5 million and then Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, adding another 9.4 to its tally. It looks like it may have a little trouble reaching 300 million... ouch.

Slipping to sixth was Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood with 8.9 million, while Spider-Man held steady with 7.5 million. Bad Company did uh, "badder" with 5.9 million, and rounding out this week's top ten was Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron with 5.2 million and Undercover Brother with 4.4 million.

Next weekend should prove interesting... can an alien named Stitch and a big power team-up of Cruise and Spielberg prove a challange for these films? We shall see, as always...

-Zach B.