Customarily in January, movies yearning for accolades expand in hopes of awards, ultimately Oscar gold. Yet the mighty Fellowship of the Ring, the first in the very lucrative Lord of the Ring trilogy, would not let go of its hold over the top of the charts. It made close to $150 million in 2002 and was one of the major players this past January. Future Oscar winners A Beautiful Mind and Black Hawk Down expanded in January to fantastic results. The films finished with close to $179 million and $108 million respectively; most of which was made in 2002. A Beautiful Mind would continue to flourish past January due to its glorious Oscar night with wins for Best Picture and Director.

Disney’s Imax release of Beauty and the Beast also performed well, finishing with close to $25 million despite never playing on more than 68 screens. Despite all the success in January of 2001 releases expanding, the biggest surprise may have been the Disney kid-pleaser Snow Dogs, starring Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. Despite scathing reviews, the film finished with close to $81 million. Critics are most likely very excited about Disney’s plans to make a Snow Dogs 2…the studio’s next Razzie hopeful.

February was full of clunkers and perhaps spawned some of the biggest failures of the year. The long delayed Rollerball and Collateral Damage hit theaters. Both films dropped faster than Eddie Murphy’s paycheck and received less than decent critical and audience praise. The biggest surprise of the month had to be the less-than-stellar performance of A-list star Bruce Willis’ Hart’s War. Opening with a measly $8 million, the film finished with under $20 million. Dragonfly, Kevin Costner’s latest also performed poorly, but there weren’t many expectations for it to begin with and it finished with close to $30 million. Sony’s Slackers and Miramax’s Birthday Girl also performed horrendously, both finishing with close to $5 million despite playing in over 1000 theaters.

Even with all of the flops, there were also some solid performers but no big breakthroughs. Denzel Washington’s John Q pulled in close to $71 million while Return to Neverland made close to $48 million. Finally, February showcased the teen-driven Crossroads and Queen of the Damned, Britney Spears and the late Aaliyah’s movies. Both debuted well with close to $15 million, but displayed no legs whatsoever and finishing with $37 million and $30 million respectively.

Things really heated up in March, which produced the biggest box office in history for the month. Twelve movies opened with over $10 million, five opened with over $20 million, and three opened with over $30 million. This is March, not even a part of the summer or fall season. Leading the March pack was Ice Age, which smashed the month’s opening record held by Liar, Liar for the past five years by a whopping 47%. Ice Age pulled in a $46 million opening weekend on its way to $176 million, finishing in the top ten of the year. Solid performers included Mel Gibson’s We Were Soldiers, Resident Evil, Blade 2, E.T. 20th anniversary re-release, and Clockstoppers. The Rookie and Panic Room shocked many analysts, as both films finished with $76 million and $95 million respectively. Dennis Quaid and Jodie Foster showed their box office prowess and scored big comeback hits.

Despite March 2002’s phenomenal success, the month still churned casualties out of Robin Williams’ Death to Smoochy, Sorority Boys, and Showtime. The latter finished with $38 million despite an $85 million budget, starting off Eddie Murphy’s awful year of failures. Adding to the box office heat produced by openers were Oscar-winning films such as Monster’s Ball, Lord of the Rings, and A Beautiful Mind. Halle Berry’s Oscar-winning performance pulled in many curious moviegoers, propelling the gross of Monster’s Ball to $31 million, never playing in more than 714 theaters. 
Part 2 (October To December) >>