STUART LITTLE leaps back into the top spot

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.