Films

AWN Animated Box Office Report. December 17 - December 19. Stuart Little had big shoes to fill to make it to the top of the U.S. box office this past weekend. The Sony flick, with primary f-ex by Sony Pictures Imageworks, additional animation done by CFX and Rhythm & Hues, and miniatures done by Thunderstone, knocked off Toy Story to finish atop the bo with a gross totaling US$15.02 million. The Green Mile kept pace and walked in second place with a gross of $12.68 million and a cume of $36.7 million. Toy Story 2 slipped to third with a gross of $12.13 million making its total $156.4 million. With the top spot in the box office going to kid-friendly flicks for the last three weeks, parents might be re-defining the location of family time away from the sin box and taking their quality time money to the local theatre. To strengthen this point, family flick The Bicentennial Man, with visual effects by Dream Quest Images, finished at #5 with a gross of $8.23 million in this its first weekend in release. The #7 spot went to The World Is Not Enough, with primary visual effects by Digital Film, Cinesite London, and Magic Camera, with a gross of $4.01 million and a cume of $105.4 million. The #8 spot went to End Of Days, with primary visual-effects by Rhythm & Hues, miniature effects by Sturber Visual Concepts, and miniature photography by Chandler Group, with a gross of $3.05 million and a cume of $57.9 million. The #9 spot went to Sleepy Hollow, with primary visual effects by Industrial Light & Magic and additional effects by CFC London, with a gross of $3 million and a cume of $85.9 million. Kevin Smith's Dogma, with visual effects by Station X Studios, fell out of the top ten to #12 with a gross of $710,000 making its cume $27.7 million. Pokemon: The First Movie also slipped from the top ten finishing at #13 with a gross of $540,000 and a cume of $83.1 million. Other special effects-laden films finishing in the top 30 include: Buena Vista's The Sixth Sense at #15, with a gross of $490,000 and a cume of $275.2 million; Warner Bros.' House On Haunted Hill at #18, with a gross of $300,000 and a cume of $39.9 million; Fox's Fight Club at #27, with a gross of $140,000 and a cume of $36.2 million; Providence's Omega Code at #29, with a gross of $130,000 and a cume of $12.1 million. Box office figures obtained on Lyco's Show Biz Data Base. . . .December 24 -26. With new live-action flicks Any Given Sunday and The Talented Mr. Ripley taking the top two spots in the U.S. box office Sony's Stuart Little had to settle with third place grossing US$11.82 million bringing its grand total to $39.5 million. Toy Story 2 finished fourth by flying in with another $10.38 million making its cume $177.5 million. The Green Mile fell to fifth with a weekend pull of $9.26 million and a cume of $53.1 million. New comer Galaxy Quest, backed by some surprisingly good reviews from the likes of Mr. Ebert, debuted at #7 with a first weekend take of $7.01 million. Bicentennial Man finished at #8 with a gross of $6.78 million and a cume of $21.0 million. Former top ten camps The World Is Not Enough, Sleepy Hollow and The End Of Days slipped to #11, #12 and #13 respectively. The World made $2.71 million bringing its cume to $111.3 million. Sleepy Hollow made $1.5 million bringing its cume to $89.3 million, and End Of Days made $1.31 million. One has to drop to #23 to find the next special-effects film; Sixth Sense is still bringing in money with a gross of $210,000 making its cume $275.7 million. Lion Gate's Dogma finished at #24 with a gross of $210,000 making its grand total $28.5 million. On only nine screens, Magnolia finished at #30 bringing in $130,000, making its total $400,000. The film goes into wide release on January 7, 2000. All box office numbers are obtained on Lycos' ShowBIZ Data Base. . . .

December 31 - January 2. After slipping to third over the Christmas weekend, Stuart Little, with primary FX by Sony Pictures Imageworks, additional animation by CFX and Rhythm & Hues, and miniatures by Thunderstone, leaped back into the top spot at the U.S. box office. Our little hero brought in US$16.02 million over the New Year's weekend bringing its total to $79.4 million. Picking up some steam again, Toy Story 2 finished #3 with a gross of $12.34 million making its total take $208.8 million. The weekend take moved Toy Story 2 ahead of the Austin Powers sequel to become the 26th highest grossing film of all time. Pretty impressive considering it hasn't even been in theatres for a full two months yet. The Green Mile, with primary visual effects by ILM and additional animation by Rhythm & Hues, POP and Matte World Digital, finished 4th making $11.78 million bringing its cume to $76.7 million. The Star Trek-spoof Galaxy Quest, with primary visual effects by ILM and additional effects by Light Matters, ended up at #6 with a gross of $9.71 million and a cume of $27.3 million. Buena Vista's The Bicentennial Man, with visual effects by Dream Quest Images, came in at #7 with a gross of $8.12 million and a cume of $39.4 million. The World Is Not Enough, with primary visual effects by Digital Film, Cinesite London, and Magic Camera, stuck on at #11 with a weekend pull of $2.87 million making its cume $117.9 million. The 12th spot was held by the highly anticipated Fantasia/2000. On 54 IMAX screens, the new Fantasia made $2.24 million dollars breaking IMAX records. The weekend gross represents the biggest ever for an IMAX release and surpasses the highest weekly total for any previous IMAX picture. It will be interesting to see how the film fares after the hustle of the holidays settles and people figure out where the closest IMAX theatre is located. Other special effects-laden films finishing in the top 30 include: Paramount's Sleepy Hollow at #13, with a gross of $1.56 million and a cume of $92.8 million; Universal's End Of Days at #15, with a gross of $1.3 million and a cume of $63.2 million; Buena Vista's The Sixth Sense at #25, with a gross of $330,000 and a cume of $276.4 million; and Lion's Gate's Dogma at #26, with a gross of $250,000 and a cume of $29 million. Over the holidays, after kids (and some adults) opened all their new Star Wars action figures they decided they wanted to catch the new episode one more time before it left theatres. The Phantom Menace finished at #28 making another $210,000 bringing its cume to a amazing $430.4 million. Looking like it will stay at #3 of all time, Episode 1 is about $30 million shy of eclipsing the first Star Wars at #2 and quite far from the $601 million the sinking boat movie made in 1997. Oh yeah, has anyone seen Pokemon anywhere in the last two weeks? Box office figures obtained on Lyco's ShowBiz Data Base. . . .

January 7 - 9. Sony's hit film Stuart Little remained at the top of the U.S. box office this past weekend taking in US$11.21 million in ticket sales. The giant-sized flick, with primary FX by Sony Pictures Imageworks, additional animation by CFX and Rhythm & Hues, and miniatures by Thunderstone, has taken home a little more than cheese with a total purse of $95.3 million. The Green Mile squeaks by live-action flick The Talented Mr. Ripley to secure the second spot on the box office charts. The Warner Bros. flick, with primary visual effects by ILM, Rhythm & Hues, POP and Matte World Digital, grossed $9.73 million bringing its cume to $91.3 million. Galaxy Quest, with primary visual effects by ILM and additional effects by Light Matters, moved up a spot to #5 with a gross of $8.02 million and a cume of $38.5 million. Toy Story 2 finished in 6th place with a gross of $7.15 million and a cume of $219.7 million making it the second highest grossing animated film in U.S. history. The Buzz and Woody-vehicle moved above Disney's 1993 release of Aladdin, which made $217 million. The troop of toys has quite a bit more to go to become the ruler of the U.S. animated b.o. Lion King still reigns with a total gross of $312 million. Going into wider release, New Line's Magnolia, with visual effects by ILM, finished at #7 with a gross of $5.69 million bringing its total to $6.6 million. Buena Vista's The Bicentennial Man, with visual effects by Dream Quest Images, came in 8th with a gross of $5.31 million and a cume of $47.2 million. At #14, Fantasia/2000 had another stellar weekend making more money than it did the previous week. On only 54 IMAX screens, the Fantasia sequel made $2.59 million raising its total take to $6.9 million. The musical extravaganza had a per screen average of $47,958, which is more than 12 times the per screen average of the #1 film Stuart Little. Other special effects-laden films finishing in the top 30 include: MGM/UA's The World Is Not Enough at #15, with a gross of $1.83 million and a cume of $120.9 million; Paramount's Sleepy Hollow at #16, with a gross of $1.11 million and a cume of $94.7 million; Universal's End Of Days at #17, with a gross of $840,000 and a cume of $64.5 million; Buena Vista's The Sixth Sense at #25, with a gross of $330,000 and a cume of $276.9 million; Lion's Gate's Dogma at #28, with a gross of $240,000 and a cume of $29.4 million; and The Phantom Menace at #29, with a gross of $180,000 and a cume of $430.7 million. Box office figures obtained on Lyco's ShowBiz Data Base. . .

January 14 - 16. Sony's US$100 million plus grossing film Stuart Little couldn't hold off the live-action comedy Next Friday at the U.S. box office thus slipping to second place. The mega-mouse flick, with primary visual effects by Sony Pictures Imageworks, additional animation by CFX and Rhythm & Hues, and miniatures by Thunderstone, grossed US$9.7 million bringing its grand total to $106.8 million. The Green Mile, with primary visual effects by ILM, Rhythm & Hues, POP and Matte World Digital, fell to 5th place grossing $7.6 million bringing its cume to $101.3 million. Galaxy Quest, with primary visual effects by ILM and additional effects by Light Matters, stayed strong at #6 with a gross of $6.6 million and a cume of $44.8 million. The critics' new favorite whipping post, Supernova, with primary visual effects by Digital Domain, finished the weekend at #8 grossing $5.7 million. Thomas Lee directed the film, but who is Thomas Lee? Well, he is nobody. Original director Walter Hill wanted no part in the finished product, thus MGM gave the credit to the ficticious Thomas Lee after Francis Ford Coppola reportedly finished up directing the flick. Not a winning endorsement for quality storytelling. Finishing off the top ten, Toy Story 2 finished in 9th place with a gross of $5 million and a cume of $225.9 million. Still on only 54 IMAX screens, Fantasia/2000 made a reported $2.3 million bringing its total to $12.6 million. If the toon keeps up its current pace by the time it hits the local U.S. movie houses in April, it will have already made $34 million. Box office figures obtained from Daily Variety.

Fantasia Filled Theaters Early. The advanced ticket sales for Disney's IMAX release of Fantasia/2000 showed strong numbers. In Reuters Magazine, Brian Weisfeld, senior vice president of operations for Toronto-based IMAX Corp., said advanced ticket sales were as high as $80,000 in some IMAX-operated theaters versus a more normal $4,000. IMAX, the owner and franchiser of more than 180 IMAX theaters worldwide, hopes that Fantasia/2000 will attract other major films to their eight story screens. Travis Reed, president of Loews Cineplex Entertainment U.S., said the three IMAX theaters it operates under a franchise with IMAX, were also seeing gigantic advance ticket sales such as in New York, which brought in $225,000, San Francisco, which brought in $100,000, and Chicago which brought in $70,000. With the animated wonders of Fantasia/2000 already intriguing ticket-buyers, hopefully the highly-anticipated flick will draw other Hollywood spectacles to IMAX screens, which generally only see the likes of nature and science films.

Read more about the new Fantasia/2000 in the following articles:
In "Fantasia/2000: Millennium Magic For A New Generation," Laura Schiff describes the delights that are awaiting us in the new year as she outlines the sequences, actors and artistic talent behind Fantasia/2000.

As Fantasia/2000's premiere date approaches, J.B. Kaufman finds Fantasia's roots and reveals Disney's hopes for their second chance at awakening Walt's dream in "A New Life For Fantasia."

Fantasia/2000 definitely pushes the technical limits of animation, creating visuals we have never seen before. As a special treat, David Bossert, the film's artistic coordinator and visual effects supervisor, takes us deep into the process in "Fantasia/2000: Blending Art and Technology."

Mononoke Follow-Up. As we reported in the past [AF 7/1/97], the world-renowned Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki had decided to hang up his white film gloves and never make a feature film again. Well cheer up anime fans! The master is back to work on a new feature film. This announcement ends a 2 1/2 year hiatus after Princess Mononoke broke box office records all over Japan. What's the follow-up to the US$150 million hit at the Japanese B.O.? The project is titled Sen To Chihiro No Kamikakushi, a simpler tale of a 10-year-old girl whose parents are transformed into pigs. Maybe this Miyazaki film will connect to more angst-filled teens in America. Hopefully, Clare Daines will be available again to do the English voice work.

DreamWorks Brings Nathan Never To Screen. DreamWorks has obtained the screen rights to Nathan Never, a comic published in Italy by Bonelli Editore and imported by Platinum Studios. The story focuses around Nathan Never, a 21st Century Dirty Harry, who, in the wake of a terrible crime, is charged to protect the lone witness. The comic was acquired by DW's Walter Parkes and Glenn Williamson. The pic will be produced by Platinum chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, co-produced by Platinum pres Ervin Rustemagic and senior VP Gregory Noveck. Parkes and Rosenberg teamed up together on Men In Black. Walter Becker and Peter Nelson, who co-wrote Buying The Cow with Walt Becker, will co-write the flick. The acquisition was reported to be in the mid six-figures area.