Tom Hanks scored big with audiences playing a
mob man in
Road to Perdition and garnered fantastic buzz for
his portrayal (The film made its way to $104 million). The month’s biggest
hit came late in the month when
Austin Powers 3 smashed its
way into theaters, breaking the July opening weekend record
with a $73 million opening weekend, on its way to a monstrous
$213 million, securing a spot in the top 5 of the summer.
Solid performers of the month including the kid flick,
Like
Mike, with its $51 million tally. The rest of the month was
rampant with disappointments as pictures just crashed and
burned even if they had budgets over $100 million. The $100+
million budgeted
K-19 and
Stuart Little both disappointed,
grabbing $35 million and $65 million respectively.
Stuart Little had to be one of the biggest disappointments
of the year. It had many factors in its favor yet just could
not capture much attention from the public. If Stuart Little 2
had opened in December like its predecessor, I truly believe
it could have easily pulled in over $100 million.
The Powerpuff Girls opened over Independence Day with a measly
$3.6 from 2340 theaters before finishing with close to $11.4
million, while Disney’s first ride to movie project,
The
Country Bears, scored disappointing numbers as well with a
total of just $17 million.
Reign of Fire,
Halloween:
Resurrection,
The Crocodile Hunter, and
Eight Legged Freaks
also performed dismally. The month was truly one of the most
unpredictable of the year.
Business in the first two weeks of August used to be dismal
compared to the rest of the season, but things have changed
over the past few years.
Signs and
xXx proved this when they
opened with $60 million and $45 million this past August.
Signs finished its run with a great $228 million, and xXx
grabbed close to $142 million from moviegoers. The other
strong performer was
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams,
which grossed close to $86 million on a $38 million budget.
Dana Carvey’s
The Master of Disguise and (producer) Brian
Grazer’s
Blue Crush performed solidly while
Blood Work,
Serving Sara,
Undisputed,
Simone, and
Feardotcom all performed
poorly but should find more success on video/DVD shelves.
The month’s biggest loser and perhaps the biggest flop of
the year would have to be Eddie Murphy’s second release of the
year,
The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Budgeted at $90 million,
Nash had an opening day of just $727,870 from 2320 theaters,
averaging $314 per theater. It pulled in $2.2 million opening
weekend before finishing its quick and disastrous run with
just $4.4 million.
Eddie Murphy’s awful year was not over yet, as Showtime and
Nash would soon be joined by another disappointment,
I Spy.
Summer 2002 totaled $3.14 billion, 2.5% more than 2001’s
tally. The big winner of the summer was Spider-Man with its
$400+ million tally. A small independent film began expanding
more quickly at the end of the summer, however, and would
really take away some of Spider’s glory. Spider-Man was seen
by many to be the story of the year by August, but IFC’s My
Big Fat Wedding was just heating up by summer’s end and would
captivate millions into the fall months, and secure and cement
its spot in the record books.
September was perhaps the slowest month of the year, but
helped tremendously by female-skewed pictures such as Greek
Wedding and
Sweet Home Alabama, and the Ice Cube picture
Barbershop. While Wedding never once hit the top of the box
office, it consistently remained a dominant box office player
in September. Barbershop, on the other hand, took many by
surprise and grossed close to $75 million in total on a $12
million budget. Sweet Home Alabama solidified Reese
Witherspoon’s A-list star status, as it grabbed close to $36
million opening weekend on a $30 million budget, on its way to
a fantastic $126 million. It also became the biggest September
opening weekend of all time.
The Tuxedo,
The Banger Sisters,
Swimfan, and
One Hour Photo performed fairly well (Sisters, Swimfan, and Photo all had relatively low budgets).
On the other hand,
City by the Sea,
The Four Features,
Stealing Harvard,
Trapped all performed dismally.
Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever was the month’s biggest disappointment, as it
made just $14 million in total despite a $70 million budget.
Many also felt that
Spirited Away also had a disappointing
run. The Japanese film played in limited release and made
close to $5.4 million. But some felt that the film had the
potential to pull in much more based on its status as Japan’s
all-time box office champion, along with its almost universal
critical praise. It may have a second life at the box office
once Oscar nominations are announced.
Part 4 (October To December) >>