ARTICLES
"What Lies Beneath" Lies on Top
Jul 24, 2000 http://www.eonline.com
What lies beneath Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer? A few stalwart mutants, a cuddly toy making its big-screen return...and one big loser.
The Ford-Pfeiffer thriller What Lies Beneath edged out the competition in its opening weekend, taking in $29.7 million at the box office and dropping the reigning mutant champs X-Men into second place. The comic book spinoff earned $23.5 million from Friday to Sunday, losing 57 percent of its opening audience from the previous weekend.
The results were good news for Ford and Pfeiffer, two A-listers who needed the boost after coming off big-screen duds like Ford's plane-crash romance Random Hearts and Pfeiffer's soapsy dud The Story of Us.
What Lies Beneath, directed by Robert Zemeckis, revolves around a well-to-do Vermont couple whose cozy little lives are disrupted by a ghost. Reviews for the film were mixed: Some critics complained that the film's revealing trailers all but gave away much of its suspense, while others raved that the Hitchcockian flick took all the right unexpected twists.
According to exit polling, the DreamWorks/20th Century Fox coproduction drew an audience that was 61 percent female, and 64 percent of theater-goers were age 25 or older.
In an altogether different demographic, youngsters flocked to the hastily released sequel for their favorite toy/gambling addiction, Pokémon: The Movie 2000. Although the fad might be waning with some kiddies, there was still enough interest to churn up $19.6 million at the box office and take third place.
Pokémon's first movie opened to $31 million last November, on its way to $86 million.
And, after 17 days in release, the Wayans Brothers' gross-out horror spoof Scary Movie came in fourth, earning $15.1 million for the weekend and boosting its total to $116.4 million (the film passed the century mark last Thursday).
The box-office tally wasn't so promising for another weekend debut, Amy Heckerling's latest teen romance, Loser. The film, which stars Mena Suvari and American Pie pastry lover Jason Biggs as the aforementioned nonwinner, lived up to its title and landed in a disappointing eighth place. Final numbers had the film dropping below another Columbia Pictures flick, The Patriot, and earning $6 million over the weekend.
Loser, which was greeted with mixed reviews, probably won't end up being listed with Heckerling's more memorable teen tales, like Clueless and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Still, Columbia Pictures says the $20 million film did succeed in drawing its targeted young female audience.
And hey, it could've been worse. This weekend's other new release, Warner Bros.' teen thriller The In Crowd, didn't even crack the top 10. The film, which opened last Wednesday, earned $1.5 million this weekend and a total of $2.7 million since its opening.
According to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, here are the final top 10 for the weekend:
1. What Lies Beneath, $29.7 million
2. X-Men, $23.5 million
3. Pokemon The Movie 2000, $19.6 million
4. Scary Movie, $15.1 million
5. The Perfect Storm, $9.7 million
6. Disney's The Kid, $6.7 million
7. The Patriot, $6.2 million
8. Loser, $6 million
9. Chicken Run, $4.6 million
10. Me, Myself & Irene, $3 million