All Pop - Movies

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The peppy cheerleading flick Bring It On continued to make noise at the box office even as Hollywood quietly ended a less-than-spectacular summer.

Bring It On, starring Kirsten Dunst, took in $14.5 million US at North American theatres during the Labour Day holiday weekend to remain the No. 1 movie for the second straight weekend, according to studio estimates Monday.

The movie raised its total take to $37 million US in 11 days.

"It's a fun movie for back to school -- it gets people into that mode," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, which released Bring It On.

Holdovers held the other top spots, with The Cell in second place with $9.1 million; Space Cowboys in third with $8.3 million and The Art of War in fourth with $7.6 million.

Two new movies opened in fairly wide release. Highlander: Endgame, with Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul in the latest saga of the sword-fighting immortals, debuted at No. 5 with $6.4 million. The movie averaged $4,115 a theatre in 1,543 cinemas, compared with $6,017 in 2,410 cinemas for Bring It On.

The bawdy sex comedy Whipped, starring Amanda Peet, opened well out of the top 10 with $2.7 million, averaging a weak $1,735 in 1,561 theatres.

Another holdover, the marijuana comedy Saving Grace, expanded from 255 theatres to 875 and did a healthy $2.9 million to finish at No. 12. The movie pushed its total gross to $6.7 million after four previous weeks in limited release.

Saving Grace was one of the more expensive film deals from last winter's Sundance Film Festival, with Fine Line paying nearly $4 million. The movie stars Brenda Blethyn as a widow who grows marijuana to make ends meet.

The film turned out to be a good buy, catching on with college crowds and the over-35 audience, said Steven Friedlander, Fine Line's executive vice-president for distribution.

"It's pretty equal between the younger audience that's into the pot humour and the 35-plus couples," Friedlander said. "You really do get two separate audiences and two separate words of mouth from people talking about the movie."

Overall, the top 12 movies grossed an estimated $76.3 million, down 16 per cent from Labour Day weekend last year, when The Sixth Sense still ruled the box office.

It was the sixth straight weekend that revenues were down compared with last year.

This summer finished down about eight per cent from the record $3 billion season Hollywood had last year. With higher ticket prices, movie attendance likely was down 10 per cent to 15 per cent from summer 1999, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

"We're finishing summer on more of a whimper than a bang," Dergarabedian said. "The summer paled in comparison to last year but was still a solid summer. You just didn't have the overall movie excitement necessary to generate a record."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Monday at theatres in Canada and the United States, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Final figures are to be released Tuesday:

1. Bring It On, $14.5 million.

2. The Cell, $9.1 million.

3. Space Cowboys, $8.3 million.

4. The Art of War, $7.6 million.

5. Highlander: Endgame, $6.4 million.

6. What Lies Beneath, $6.2 million.

7. The Original Kings of Comedy, $5.9 million.

8. The Replacements, $4.4 million.

9. Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, $3.8 million.

10. The Crew," $3.6 million.

"Bring It On" wins again