Box Office Report for 2/18/02 Whew!

[The Clown Prince]

Five new films debuted over the President's Day weekend, and claiming the top spot was Denzel Washington with New Line's hostage drama John Q., which earned $20.6 million over the past three days. And perhaps we should be grateful, for were it not for John Q., Paramount's Britney Spears star-project Crossroads would have been the number-one film in America — in any event, it performed strongly with a $14.6 million bow for second place (far better than the oft-compared Mariah Carey washout Glitter, which never reached the top ten). Other new arrivals included Disney's Return to Never Land ($11.8 million), MGM's Hart's War ($8.3 million), and Fox's Super Troopers ($6.2 million). The new films received mixed reviews with the exception of Crossroads, which was jack-hammered by most critics (Ebert: "I went to Crossroads expecting a glitzy bimbofest and got the bimbos but not the fest.")

In continuing release, eight Academy Award nominations earned Universal's A Beautiful Mind another $8.5 million with $124.7 million to date, while the 13-time nominee Lord of the Rings is still hanging around, adding $5 million to its $277.9 million cume. Last week's winner, Warner's Collateral Damage, fell to fourth with $28.5 million so far, while Black Hawk Down now has $95.4 million after two months. And on the way to DVD prep is MGM's Rollerball, which had a $9 million break last week but has now vanished from sight.

New films opening this Friday include Dragonfly starring Kevin Costner and Queen of the Damned with Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend. Here's the top-grossing films at North American theaters from last weekend:


1) John Q. (New Line) NEW!!!
$20,600,000 ($20,600,000 through 1 week)

2) Crossroads (Paramount) NEW!!!
$14,600,000 ($14,600,000 through 1 week)

3) Return to Never Land (Buena Vista) NEW!!!
$11,800,000 ($11,800,000 through 1 week)

4) Collateral Damage (Warner Bros.)
$9,100,000 ($28,500,000 through 2 weeks)

5) Big Fat Liar (Universal)
$8,700,000 ($22,200,000 through 2 weeks)

6) A Beautiful Mind (Universal)
$8,500,000 ($124,700,000 through 9 weeks)

7) Hart's War (MGM) NEW!!!
$8,300,000 ($8,300,000 through 1 week)

8) Black Hawk Down (Columbia/TriStar)
$6,200,000 ($95,400,000 through 8 weeks)

9) Super Troopers (Fox Searchlight)
$6,200,000 ($6,200,000 through 1 week)

10) Snow Dogs (Buena Vista)
$5,800,000 ($67,200,000 through 5 weeks)

Friggin teeny boppers and their Brittney Spears. Why couldn't she fail miserably like Mariah?!

I'm Surprised Hart's War didn't do better, but you know what, I could care less about MGM right now. Right now they are the enemy with that they are doing to New Line's Austin Powers 3. I feel bad for Bruce Willis, but not MGM.

The Clown Prince

[Calhoun07]

I just want to know why we care what the critics say? I am not trying to defend Crossroads here, but we keep up putting up the worst possible reviews of this movie we can find. I never listen to the critics. There are several movies universally hated by critics that I love, and there are movies that they drool over that are not worth the time and effort to even look at the poster. For all I know, Crossroads is a great movie by itself that the critics just don't get, and would be rather enjoyable. Again, I am not saying it is, but Britney is mad hot so I will likely at least rent it when it comes out on DVD and then I will let myself decide, not some over payed movie watcher that calls himself a critic.