Friday, 29 August 1997

WEEKEND REVIEW
Could Titanic actually drop under $20 million a weekend before March? Maybe. Not this weekend, as it took in another $23.2 million. The fight for the second slot was a lot more competitive than I expected. Not because any film did amazingly well, but because The Replacement Killers and Blues Brothers 2000 were so soft. Good Will Hunting actually passed both new films on Saturday, but ended up between them as Mr. Chow and Ms. Sorvino gunned down $8.1 million for second place. Blues Brothers couldn't muster up more than $6.5 million in concertgoers, just $300,000 behind Good Will Hunting.

THE GOOD: Titanic's weekend brings its total to about $330 million, shoving it past Forrest Gump to become the fourth highest-grossing film in domestic box office history.

THE BAD: Great Expectations and Spice World both dropped just over 40 percent in their second weekend.

THE UGLY: Desperate Measures and Deep Rising dropped almost 50 percent in their second weekend.

MAKE MINE MUSIC: Lately, finding the best music at the movies has meant sitting through the credits. First, k.d. lang kicked butt with her brassy Bond tune during the end credits to Tomorrow Never Dies. Now, Blues Brothers 2000 offers up a great musical surprise at the very end of its credits. No, I won't tell. Not much of a screenplay there, but Blues Brothers is among the best concert films ever with fun dance numbers and an all-star blues jam that is so star-filled it boggles the mind.

JUST WONDERING: Does the idea of Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow double dating with matching best friends Matt Damon and Winona Ryder make you a little queasy too? A little too on the nose. Besides, you could cut the hype with a knife.

READER OF THE DAY: WFG writes: "In Friday's rough cut you said that Mouse Hunt will be the 5th most successful film of December. Well, Scream 2 is about $40 million ahead of it and will definitely wind up beating it with a final sum of over 100 million." Thanks for the accurate correction and thanks too to SteMa7 for also picking up my mistake.

E-ME: The Academy Award nominations will be out tomorrow morning, real early. So, if you want to be in the running for my undying admiration, e-mail me your guess at the nominations today.