What an odd weekend…

No one really won.  No one really lost.  If there was a winner, it was Road to Perdition, which estimated a $22 million start… but we won’t really know whether the film is going to be the first movie leggy enough to get to $100 million after a sub-$30 million start this year… and that’s where the win is… at least $80 million domestic.  Don’t pay too much attention to the Saving Private Ryan comparisons.  As good as Perdition is, it doesn’t have anything to compare to the you-have-to-see-this 20 minutes that started that war epic… which also opened to 50 percent more than Perdition, despite a significantly longer running time.  If there was a loser, it was Reign of Fire, the expensive Disney release that managed to start with only $16 million and is unlikely to get past the $50 million mark domestically. 

But really… nothing much.  Halloween: Resurrection played to its core audience and will top out at around $30 million before making three or four times its cost in video/DVD.  The Crocodile Hunter Goes To The Japan managed somewhere around $10 million, which is enough to start looking at black ink in video… a new tradition at MGM 2002. 

There is the horrifying likelihood that Scooby Doo will actually outgross Minority Report even though Minority Report is holding better.  I expect that Lilo & Stitch will eventually pass Scooby by a few million by the time the summer is over. 

Meanwhile, the bean counters at Sony have to look at a $175 million total for Men in Black II, which is not exactly what they were expecting in this summer of hits.  Given the huge backend, both first dollar gross for Spielberg and gross against salary for Sonnenfeld, Smith and Jones, the film will have to do at least as well overseas as it’s done here AND it will have to sell an awful lot of videos or it will actually be a money loser, despite a worldwide gross of $400 million.  Don’t believe that Stuart Little, which is tracking even younger and cost even more than the original, isn’t causing some tossing and turning in TorchVille.  They don’t have the backend worries that MiBII offers, but if this one opens to even Scooby Doo numbers, it will be a small miracle.

Finally, Spider-Man seems to be all but done in theatrical release after its remarkable run.  It passed $400 million last weekend and according to estimate, it failed to bring in $1 million this weekend.  It ran just 10 weeks… the biggest movie of the year so far by more than $100 million and it only ran 10 productive weekends.  (Of course, the art house films would be thrilled to get the Spider-Dregs, but…)   In comparison, Harry Potter stayed over the $1 million mark for 16 weeks and Lord of the Rings was there for 17 weeks.  And both films ended up more than $80 million behind Spider-Man’s domestic numbers. 

JUST WONDERING:  There’s a report about a remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House… wasn’t it called The Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long?

HANG ‘EM HIGH:  Ahmed Omar Sayeed Sheikh, Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil were all found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Daniel Pearl.  Sheik Omar got the death penalty.  The accomplices got life in prison.  Were it only something close to justice…

JUST WONDERING 2:  Why isn’t there more commotion about L.A. Times/freelance reporter Anita Busch going into hiding for the last few weeks?   Why hasn’t the L.A. Times written a word about it?  Why isn’t the FBI involved?  Even though lots of people have heard the story from fellow L.A. Times writers, why is the only outlet to tell the tale from the horse’s mouth the NY Daily News gossip columnists Rush & Molloy?

AD WATCH:  While one of my colleagues is obsessing on mustaches and body fat, Disney was sneaking by with a near-criminal bit if false advertising.  It didn’t occur to me for a day or so after having seen Reign of Fire, but you know how there are lots and lots of attack helicopters in the billboards and one-sheets for Reign?  There is only one helicopter in Reign of Fire.  One.  And a couple of tanks. 

I recall that I was expecting a jet fighter to turn up as I watched the picture, based on the trailer and ads.  But it turned out that the flying men were jumping out of a helicopter… the only helicopter. 

Why does this matter?  When as I wrote in my review, Reign could have been the kind of movie that has lots of airpower fighting lots of dragons.  But it is not.  And were I a civilian, I would expect that to be a part of the movie, a real motive to spend my dollars.  And I would not have found what was advertised.  The quality of the film overall can always be debated.  I got a lot of mail this weekend questioning Harry Knowles’ sanity.  You know, he has a right to like what he wants to like.  But neither Disney nor any other studio has the right to overtly misrepresent the content of the their films in order to sell them.  It would be kind of like if Frank The Pug wasn’t in MiBII or if it turned out that the web swinging in the commercial for Spider-Man was just a dream sequence that never goes beyond a minute or so or if there was no giant tarantula in Eight Legged Freaks. 

JUST WONDERING 3:  I’m thrilled that Robert Towne is directing again, but why is someone other than he doing the screenplay adaptation of Carter Beats The Devil? 

NOT SPEAK, NOT HEAR, NAZI:  Great story on Leni Riefenstahl by Reuter’s Adam Tanner. She will turn 100 years old on August 22, which coincidentally will be the fifth birthday of The Hot Button.  And she still has one last film on the way, the 50 minute long Underwater Impressions, created in recent years indozens of scuba dives.  The film will be released on her birthday and is expected to quickly go to DVD.  The full story is here.

JUST WONDERING 4:  After Mark Cuban became the smartest survivor of the internet bubble, selling out to Yahoo! for billions and actually selling his stock, getting away with the cash, why is he getting into the movie business?  He’s picked up a 5.8 percent stake in Lion’s Gate, though it only cost him $5 million to become the company’s third biggest stockholder… less than any of his basketball team’s starters earn each year, so…

READER OF THE DAY:  Not Michelle’s Brother writes:  “I can't help but think that the overblown praise for "Road to Perdition" might backfire.  I avoided reading much about the substance of the film but couldn't help but hear how masterful (and every other high-praise adjective) it is.  (And no, Westwood One, it is not the best crime picture since "The Godfather".)  Saw it on Monday and found it to be a solid, well-made film that doesn't amount to much in the end.  Where it fails to deliver that knockout punch is in the characterization.  It's an entertaining film, but I never took much from the characters.

The father-son dynamic works okay, but it is never dealt with enough to be more than just a hint of flavor in an otherwise standard plot.  Hanks is good in the film, but I feel that Mendes needed to challenge the audience more in regard to Hanks'/Sullivan's capacity for violence.  As it stands (and correct me if I'm wrong), any violence precipitating from Hanks is softened, whether it's just seeing his feet when his son learns his real occupation or the operatic tone when he (spoiler regarding an act by Mike Sullivan near the ending).  It's as if they wanted to make Hanks darker than usual but were hesistant to make him "bad" or "evil".

"Perdition" would have benefited from more scenes with Newman.  He's criminally underused in the film.  But when all is said and done, "Road to Perdition" is a cut above typical summer fare (and this summer has

been better than most).  It would have been nice for Mendes to have hit a home run, but sometimes a double is good enough to get the job done.”

SCOTT OF INDONESIA writes in with a minor spoiler/theory on Minority Report:  “I read a theory on Minority Report after seeing it (great great flick, BTW) which says the last part, after Tom is placed in "halo sleep", is all a dream induced by the halo.

Whaddya think? Heard anything about this from anyone in the know? In one way, it would make the ending a little cooler if true, although a little darker!”

And THE DE-WITTY ONE says:  “My wife and I saw the Road to Perdition last night, great movie! Having seen it, I can't imagine why any one would be less than blown away. We both felt like it was the strongest piece of cinema we've seen in years. From the wonderful acting to the beautiful cinematography, the movie is as flawless as anything I've seen in recent memory. The scene that got me the most was during the climax where Michael Sullivan (spoiler removed). By the time he gets to (spoiler), it makes it all the more powerful when the volume is then added back in. Just plain powerful stuff! BTW, having read your column on Thursday, I listened for similarities in the score to American Beauty, I didn't really notice any. Maybe it's just a testament to the overall power of the movie that I was unable to notice.”

E ME:  You know how.