Reuters
May 15, 2005
Lopez, Fonda a 'Monster' pairing at box office
SPOILERS!
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two new comedies pairing veteran actors with younger stars dominated the weekend box office in North America, with the Jennifer Lopez-Jane Fonda vehicle "Monster-in-Law" taking top honors, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.
"Monster-in-Law," Fonda's first film since 1990's "Stanley & Iris," sold about $24 million worth of tickets since opening May 13. It was followed by the Will Ferrell-Robert Duvall soccer comedy, "Kicking & Screaming," which scored a three-day estimate of $20.9 million.
Both films outperformed the expectations of their respective studios, New Line Cinema and Universal Pictures, but they were unable to prevent the overall box office from suffering its 12th consecutive "down" weekend when compared with the year-ago period. Sales so far this year are down 6 percent from last year, and attendance is off 9 percent, according to box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
Hollywood hopes the force will be with it next Thursday when George Lucas' long-awaited "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" kicks off the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
This weekend's top 10 contained two other new releases, the martial arts thriller "Unleashed," starring Chinese action hero Jet Li, at No. 3 with $10.6 million; and the psychological thriller "Mindhunters," starring Val Kilmer and LL Cool J, at No. 10 with $2 million.
Last weekend's champ, "Kingdom of Heaven," starring Orlando Bloom as a humble French blacksmith who takes on the Arabs during the 12th century, fell to No. 4 with $9.6 million. The ensemble urban drama "Crash" rounded out the top five with $7.2 million. Their respective totals stand at $35.1 million and $19.8 million.
The top 12 films earned $95.5 million this weekend, said Exhibitor Relations, down 6.7 percent from the year-ago period when "Troy" opened at No. 1 with $46.9 million.
"Monster-in-Law," directed by Australian Robert Luketic ("Legally Blonde"), stars Fonda as a domineering mother out to sabotage the promising relationship between the characters played by Lopez and Michael Vartan of the TV spy show "Alias." The reviews were generally unkind, but that didn't stop women over 25 from showing up for the comedic antics.
New Line, a unit of Time Warner Inc., said the movie was budgeted in the low- to mid-$40 million range.
In "Kicking & Screaming," Ferrell plays the hapless coach of a soccer team, which must face off against a team coached by his over-achieving father, played by Duvall. It was directed by Jesse Dylan, one of singer Bob Dylan's sons. The budget was in the mid-$40 million area, said Universal, a unit of NBC Universal, which is majority owned by General Electric Co.
"Unleashed," released by the Rogue Pictures genre arm of NBC Universal's Focus Features unit, played primarily to the hard-core action crowd dominated by minorities, the studio said.
"Kingdom of Heaven" was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. "Crash" was released by Lions Gate Films, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. "Mindhunters" was released by Dimension Films, a unit of Walt Disney Co.
© Reuters Limited 2005
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