Hollywood blamed the renewed threat of terrorism and anthrax for a slow box-office weekend. Moviegoers blamed the renewed barrage of caustically unfunny comedies and bland action films for their non-attendance.
Denzel Washington’s Training Day held the top spot for a second week in a row, earning $13.6 million. Washington’s first turn as a bad guy apparently held appeal for viewers who couldn’t possibly be attending to see Ethan Hawke.
It was followed by outrageous buddy-caper Bandits, a film starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett. It earned $13.5 million, which is far less than its distributor, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. expected. Considering that the movie cost, inexplicably, $75 million to make, Bandits will likely bomb financially. Reviews were mixed for the film that, by most accounts, had been made nearly 100,000 times before.
The only other new releases were Corky Romano, which is better left undiscussed, and Iron Monkey, which featured Quentin Tarantino’s continued attempts to remind people that he is, in fact, still alive. Romano came in third place and made $9.3 million, just short of its $11 million budget. It is expected that the Chris Kattan vehicle will be profitable, thus increasing the threat that Kattan may appear in other movies. Monkey came in sixth place and made $6 million. The Hong-Kong action film was released with the help of Tarantino. An aficionado of Hong-Kong cinema, Tarantino’s work to get Monkey released was described by some as a “labor of love,” others as a “desperate attempt to stay in the limelight at least long enough for his newest movie, Kill Bill, to be theatrically released.” Monkey is considered a classic of Asian cinema, a movie that first popularized some of the action sequences later seen in movies like The Matrix and Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon.
The only other movie that made much of a dent on the Hollywood consciousness was David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, a noir-thriller that packed the 66 theaters it was shown in. It made $708,000, averaging more than double per screening of its closest rival.
-Rounding out the top five, Serendipity, with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, made $9.0 million, and Don’t Say a Word, with Michael Douglas and his aging career, made $6.8 million.
-Bringing up the rear were Zoolander, starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson (and Stiller’s wife, Christine Taylor, who starred as Melody on Hey Dude), Joy Ride, starring the cute but relatively talentless Leelee Sobieski, Max Keeble’s Big Move, starring the loveable antics of little Alex Linz, and Hearts in Atlantis, starring Hannibal the Cannibal, Anthony Hopkins. All four made a combined $16.4 million.
There have been some who suggested that next weekend might be better for Hollywood. But with Johnny Depp’s From Hell, Robert Redford’s The Last Castle, and Drew Barrymore’s Riding in Cars With Boys (the sequel to Never Been Kissed, The Wedding Singer, and Home Fries, all of which were, like Riding will be, insufferable), there’s absolutely no guarantee than at an audience apparently frightened by world events will be encouraged to possibly be frightened by Hollywood’s productions.
