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September 18th, 2000
Slow box office (with "Almost Famous" ramblings)
and new reviews!
Wow... what a bad weekend at the box office. It set a new
record... with the number one movie having the smallest
weekend gross for number one all year. With the exception of
"Almost Famous", there were many underperformances. I guess
everyone was home watching the Olympics.
Anyhow, the top movie was "The Watcher", the Keanu Reeves
stinker, which brought in a really small 5.7 million. In
second was the Jamie Foxx action comedy "Bait" with a mere
5.5 million, and coming in third was "Bring It On",
Universal's popular cheerleader comedy with 5.1 million.
"Nurse Betty" went to four with 4.7 million, and the movie
in fifth place was this summer's hit "What Lies Beneath",
which moved up to five with 2.5 million.
Yet this weekend's big winner was "Almost Famous" coming
it at number eight. It made 2.3 million, and was playing in
only 131 theaters, meaning the average was a really healthy
$17,557. The movie opens wide next week, and is already
getting awards buzz, so it should perform really well and be
in the top 10 for a long time. I predict it will do very
well and make money steadily. I hope it makes back the
somewhat large budget of 60 million. I did see the film
myself on Saturday, and I absoltuley loved it, truly one of
the best movies I've seen in a really long time. Dreamworks
has yet another hit on their hands. Anyhow, it wasn't what I
expected it to be, but was really enjoyable. The mix of
humor and drama were excellent, and Crowe's sharp script was
wonderful. There was never a dull moment in it, and when
things started to go just a little slow, Crowe knew what to
do and made things more interesting and the pace picked up.
The cast was also excellent, everyone gave performances that
are Oscar® worthy. Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate
Hudson, Jason Lee, newcomer Patrick Fugit... it was just so
incredible. Once again, I highly reccomended this movie to
everyone. It's a different kind but really entertaining
coming of age story. I honestly felt like I was in the
1970's, Crowe's direction and script (as mentioned) were
really wonderful. I'll probably see it again when I get the
chance... can't wait for the DVD (which I heard would have a
director's cut, making the movie 2 hours and 50 minutes
long). Everyone, go see this movie!
Back on topic... coming in tied for ninth and tenth
respectively, were two Disney movies. "Duets", the delayed
Gwyneth Platrow road comedy-drama performed with 2.0
million, making over $3,000 per screen and in 581 theaters.
The movie was directed by her father Bruce, and I think I
mentioned on Friday it was supposed to be released on May
5th, but there were two violent scenes so Disney was going
to drop the movie if they weren't cut or something. The
reviews for the movie were not so favorable, and I think
this is going to be a bomb... and also making 2.0 million
was the re-release of "Scary Movie". Disney stuck it back
into a few theaters, just to bring the gross up a little
more. They do that a lot, as many of us can recall.
As far as things on the site go, Ren has prepared a few
new reviews of us today. They're all great reviews, and you
Bruckheimer, Weird Al and Madonna fans should all be happy.
Armagedon:
The Criterion Collection,
Weird
Al Yankovic: The Videos and
Madonna:
Video Collection 1993-99 are all now in the database for
your reading enjoyment.
Well, that's it for today. And remember... go see "Almost
Famous"!
- Zach B.
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