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Monday, July 10, 2000
'Scary Movie' slashes competition
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Scary Movie, a horror film spoof filled with foul language and crude sexual humour, was the runaway favourite of weekend moviegoers, according to industry estimates released Sunday.
The Dimension film took in $42.5 million US at theatres in Canada and the United States over the three-day period that began Friday, the second-largest opening weekend of the year.
Only Mission: Impossible 2 opened with a bigger bang this year, taking in $57.8 million US for three days over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend. The Perfect Storm grossed $41.3 million US during its Fourth of July weekend opening.
The Perfect Storm and The Patriot finished second and third this weekend, despite being off more than 30 per cent from their opening numbers the previous week. Storm brought in $27 million on 3,407 screens, and Patriot took in $15.5 million on 3,061 screens.
The other film to be widely released this weekend, Disney's The Kid, earned $12.5 million on 2,167 screens.
The film stars Bruce Willis as a 40-year-old image consultant who magically encounters his chubby eight-year-old self, played by Spencer Breslin. The kid winds up teaching his adult self what's missing in his life: family, fun, dreams.
Distributor Buena Vista Pictures said it played well to its target audience of families and adult couples, opening higher than 1992's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and 1998's The Parent Trap.
"It's a fantasy everybody would like to have happen -- that ability to do it again," said Chuck Viane, Buena Vista's president of distribution.
In limited release, But I'm a Cheerleader, a Lions Gate film about a girl who is carted off to sexual-orientation boot camp after her parents suspect she's a lesbian, drew a $15,000 per screen average in just four theatres.
Scary Movie, a parody of such teen horror flicks as Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, earned $14,595 a screen.
The film earned far more than the originals: Scream earned just $6.3 million during its opening weekend in 1996, and I Know What You Did Last Summer took in $15.8 million during its opening in 1997.
Scary Movie will likely continue having a good run this month. It
won't face serious competition from other comedies until Eddie Murphy's Nutty Professor sequel opens July 28.
--AllPop
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