Friday, 9 January 1998

WEEKEND PREVIEW

The first non-holiday weekend of the new year and not much to go on.The only new wide release is Fox's forest fire actioner, Firestorm,starring the hugely popular (snicker, snicker) Howie Long. Last year,three pictures debuted in this slot. The Relic opened OK, followed bya weak Jackie Chan's First Strike and a disastrousTurbulence. My guess is that Firestorm will do a Liotta-like $4.5million for seventh place. The unsinkable Titanic will certainlymaintain first place. The weekday numbers are off, with the holidayover, by about 60 percent, but I expect that the Fri-Sat cume should drop onlyabout 15 percent because kids are back in school and another 7.5 percent or so because of reduced attendance onFriday and late Sunday. That means about $25.8 million.

As Good As It Gets seems to be in the passing lane, rushing past aremote-controlled Tomorrow Never Dies for second place with a 30 percent dropto about $8.6 million. Bond drops 40 percent to third with $8.3 million topass the $100 million mark domestically. Mouse Hunt will take theDreamWorks box office crown, dipping about 35 percent to add $5.5 millioncheese balls for fourth. Scream 2 should battle Jackie Brown for thefifth spot. Both look like 34 percent droppers, but will the long-term wear onS2 be worse than the ennui that seems to surround T3 (that's Tarantino3). Both should hang out around $47.7 million. Firestorm will follow.Amistad should drop one spot to eighth with about $3.1 million. And Mr.Magoo should be tangling with Flubber for ninth and tenth with about$2.6 million each. The third of the Disney idiot trilogy, An AmericanWerewolf In CGI, should drop below the Mendoza line.

Reader Timothy Kooney sent us this over the holidays, responding to my Worst of 1997 list. It's edited for space.

"Lost Worldshould have ranked worst of the worst with a Surgeon General's warning. This moviehad it all: hack writing, bad acting, half-dimensional characters,B-movie suspense, inconsistent science, fractured plot,lead-pipe-to-the-head "humor"/irony and more. The dinosaurs were themost life-like creatures on the screen."

TK adds about Jeff Goldblum:
"After Lost World, I think even the Prince of Darkness will be ready toget this babbling idiot off the screen. I don't remember my Dante, isthere a circle of hell for bad acting?"

E-mail me with whatever pushes your Hot Button.

And check out this week's brand-spanking-new The Whole Picture where I smack around the critics. You know they deserve it!