Weekend, 25 October 1997

A neck snapper at this weekend's box office. After what seemed like some impressive marketing gains by Sony, audiences answered Gattaca with "What-aca?!" while continuing to reward simple, straight-forward genre fare with mondo box office.

Both I Know What You Did Last Summer (first with $13.1 million) and The Devil's Advocate (second with $10.3 million) dropped less that 18% in their second weeks, just as killer thriller Kiss The Girls (third with $5.2 million) did in it's second outing two weeks ago. Very, very impressive. All three films are heading over the $50 million mark, though Sony will probably continue to be it's own worst enemy, with the November 7th opening of Starship Troopers looking to be the main roadblock on IKWYDLS's highway of cash.

Seven Years In Tibet continues a forgettable journey, adding $4.8 million for fourth. The aforementioned Gattaca could arrange only $4.4 million for fifth. Guess Uma isn't as perfect as we thought. Fairytale: A Weak Opening took in $3.4 million for sixth, though this film may be 1997's A Little Princess - much loved/little seen. In & Out stays in the money with $2.86 million for seventh and Soul Food adds to it's hidden fortune with another $2.2 million for eighth.

My personal horror show, I Know You Had A Hit Last Summer, featuring actors who can't quite step up to the hype, features A Life Less Ordinary this week, which despite Obi-Wan McGregor, My Best Mask's Cameron Diaz and the makers of Heroinspotting couldn't muster more than $2.1 million for ninth. L.A. Confidential stays on the QT with a hush-hush $2 million. Quietly lurking over next weekend's box office chart is Boogie Nights, which expanded out to 124 screens for $1.9 million and a truly exploitive per screen average of over $15,000. Next week, the film goes wide in an otherwise soft weekend and should take the top spot.

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