Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy in Dimension's 'Scary Movie 3'. - Contributed LOS ANGELES (AP):
THE SCARY Movie franchise has risen from the grave, with part three of the horror-spoof series opening as the top weekend flick with US$49.7 million, the best October debut ever.
Scary Movie 3 bumped the previous weekend's number one movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to second place with US$14.7 million, according to studio estimates yesterday.
Premiering in third place with US$14 million was the feel-good drama Radio, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. in the real-life story of a mentally-disabled man befriended by a high school football coach (Ed Harris).
Angelina Jolie whose career had been on the skids with the flops Original Sin and Life or Something Like It, plus a weak return on last summer's Tomb Raider sequel delivered another turkey with Beyond Borders.
DOOMED ROMANCE
A downbeat story of doomed romance between humanitarian-aid workers (Jolie and Clive Owen), Beyond Borders opened at number 11 with just US$2 million. The overall box office soared, with the top 12 movies taking in US$121.1 million, up 39 per cent from the same weekend last year.
Scary Movie 3 was a lesson in resurrecting a declining franchise. Created by the Wayans brothers, Scary Movie was a surprise hit in summer 2000, with a total gross of US$157 million. Their Scary Movie 2 the following spring smacked of a rush job and did less than half the business of its predecessor.
Miramax, whose Dimension banner releases the Scary Movie flicks, tapped David Zucker, part of the team behind the disaster-film spoof Airplane! and the police parody The Naked Gun, to direct Scary Movie 3.
AUDIENCE
The audience was mainly younger than 25, but Zucker's involvement helped bring in older adults, Miramax co-founder Bob Weinstein said.
"David Zucker almost semi-invented this genre," Weinstein said. "You have those people who loved Airplane! but said, ah, Scary Movie, that's not for me, then going, oh, Zucker's doing it?"
Miramax also broadened the audience to younger teens by toning down the raunchy sight gags, holding Scary Movie 3 to a PG-13 rating. The first two Scary Movie instalments were rated R.
"The traditional wisdom is you don't mess with a franchise formula because you run the risk of alienating the core audience," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "In this case, the combination of retooling it and making it more accessible with a PG-13 rating was a perfect combination."
Zucker is returning to direct Scary Movie 4, due out late next year, Weinstein said.
Disney's latest animated flick, Brother Bear, debuted impressively in limited release, taking in US$285,000 in two New York City and Los Angeles theatres. The movie, which features the voice of Joaquin Phoenix as an Inuit boy seeking to undo misdeeds that have transformed him into a bear, opens in wide release of about 3,000 theatres this coming weekend.
Also opening strongly in limited release were Jane Campion's dark murder thriller In the Cut, starring Meg Ryan, and Gus Van Sant's Elephant, featuring a group of unknown teen actors in a drama loosely inspired by the Columbine school shootings.
In the Cut took in US$95,000 at six theatres. Elephant, the top prize winner at last spring's Cannes Film Festival, grossed US$90,000 in six theatres. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theatres, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released today:
1. Scary Movie 3, US$49.7 million.
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, US$14.7 million.
3. Radio, US$14 million.
4. Runaway Jury, US$8.4
million.
5. Mystic River, US$7.6
million.
6. The School of Rock, US$6.5 million.
7. Kill Bill Vol. I, US$6
million.
8. Good Boy!, US$4.85 million.
9. Intolerable Cruelty, US$3.6 million.
10. Under the Tuscan Sun, US$2.2 million.
