Preview and Projections for the Weekend of April 2nd, 2004
By Edward Douglas -

Greetings and welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly guide to the weekend’s new movies. Tune in every Tuesday for the latest look at the upcoming weekend, and then check back on Friday for any last minute updates.

This week, the Weekend Warrior celebrates a year at ComingSoon.net, so I would like to personally thank everyone at the site—Jon, Scott and Chuck—as well as all of my new readers that have made me feel welcome here. Most of all, I have to thank Mirko, who took a big chance bringing me on board with my wacky long-winded column last year. I still don’t think he really knew what he was getting in for, but one couldn’t ask for a friendlier and funnier boss. He has made the transition to the “big time” so smooth and painless that I can’t imagine ever wanting to write for another site, and I look forward to this relationship lasting for many years.

WEEKEND PROJECTIONS - final update 4.1.04

April’s first challenge comes from the release of two action movies that both target the coveted young male market, as Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of the cult comic, Hellboy, takes on wrestler The Rock in a remake of the 70’s revenge drama, Walking Tall. With stronger promotion and much more anticipation (at least from me), Hellboy should do well enough to take the top spot with a wide margin over Walking Tall, despite them opening in a similar number of theatres. Disney Pictures makes one last play for the animation market with the family film, Home on the Range, which will try to steal some of the kids away from Scooby-Doo 2, as will the Julia Stiles romantic drama, The Prince & Me, although neither movie seems strong enough to make much of a mark at the box office. Either way, April should continue March’s strong push to get people into theatres over the weekend, allowing the Top 10 to gross over $100 million for the sixth week in a row.

TW	LW	Title	Weekend (in millions)	Change	# of Theaters	Average	Week
1	New	Hellboy	$28.0	N/A	3,028	$9,247	1
2	1	Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed	$17.5	-40%	3,312	$5,284	2
3	New	Walking Tall	$14.2	N/A	2,836	$5,007	1
4	New	Home on the Range	$11.5	N/A	3,047	$3,774	1
5	3	The Passion of the Christ	$8.0	-35%	3,408	$2,347	6
6	3	The Ladykillers	$8.0	-37%	1,587	$5,041	2
7	New	The Prince & Me	$7.0	N/A	2,682	$2,610	1
8	5	Jersey Girl	$6.5	-22%	1,821	$3,569	2
9	4	Dawn of the Dead	$5.0	-53%	2,355	$2,123	3
10	6	Taking Lives	$3.5	-47%	2,010	$1,741	3
			Est. Weekend Total $109.50	Est. Avg. Drop-Off -39%		Est. Average PTA $4,085

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HELLBOY (Columbia Pictures)
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, John Hurt, Jeffrey Tambor, Karel Roden, Doug Jones, Rupert Evans, Biddy Hodson, David Hyde Pierce (voice)
Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro (Blade 2, The Devil’s Backbone, Mimic)
Rated PG-13
Tagline: “Give Evil Hell” (wow, that’s a pretty sucky tagline!)

Based on Mike Mignola’s cult comic book character, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is a demon brought to earth by evil scientists and then put to use fighting the supernatural in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Along with his fellow agents, the man-fish Abe Sapien and fire-starter Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Hellboy takes on an evil power that threatens a mankind that will always treat them like outcasts.

Ten years ago, comic book artist Mike Mignola introduced his character Hellboy as part of a new line of comics made up of respected creators from the larger independent publisher, Dark Horse Comics. In the ten years since, Mignola has released a number of self-contained stories and mini-series based on the character as well as various spin-offs based on the characters, allowing the character to build a dedicated audience of comic readers including many outside the comic book industry like Mexican horror director, Guillermo del Toro, who took the project to heart, developing it for many years before it was picked up by Sony/Revolution Studios.

Up until 2002, del Toro was best known in the States as the director of the horror movie, Mimic, a cult favorite that didn’t do well at the box office, although del Toro has gone on the record that he wasn’t happy with the process of making the movie. Years later, del Toro was back at the helm for the sequel to a popular vampire-action movie, Blade II with Wesley Snipes. The original made $70 million in theatres, and the sequel grossed almost half that opening weekend. Around that same time, del Toro’s Spanish language horror movie, The Devil’s Backbone, also received a lot of attention Stateside both among horror fans and for the art house crowd. Both movies helped del Toro quickly establish a reputation as a quality filmmaker after the disappointing Mimic.

To play the kid demon, del Toro brought in his friend and long-time collaborator Ron Perlman, an odd choice, because let’s face it, at 54 years old, he’s a bit old to be considered a “boy”. He’s not a very well known actor, especially to young people, having played mainly secondary characters in movies over the last few years. Perlman’s career kicked off with a role that gave him the best experience for Hellboy, starring in the popular television drama, “Beauty and the Beast”, opposite The Terminator’s Linda Hamilton. As the creature Vincent, he had to wear a lot of make-up while trying to win the love of a woman, much like Hellboy does in this movie. He first worked with del Toro in his 1993 movie, Chronos, and then played a vampire assassin in Blade II. Other than that, most of Perlman’s most prominent roles were in smaller movies like The City of Lost Children from Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and the war epic, Enemy at the Gates. While he might not have many diehard fans, horror and genre fans might be aware of his work and know how perfect he is for the role, especially having had experience providing voices for various superhero cartoon shows like “The Fantastic Four” and “Batman” over the years.

There have been many blockbuster superhero movies over the years, such as 2002’s record-breaking Spider-Man or the Superman and Batman movies. Then, you have last year’s Hulk and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, both which opened well but ultimately disappointed. The biggest superhero movies were based on characters that were well known long before their movies, having appeared on television and cartoons and other places. Hellboy doesn’t have that benefit, since few people besides diehard comic fans will know who he is. Awareness is even lower than for Daredevil last year, and even the comic book has less of an audience than Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, another semi-successful comic film. Hellboy, the comic, is more of a cult phenomenon that is known within the insular comic community but nowhere else.

Sony is taking a big chance on this character finding an audience, much like Marvel did with Blade, but that gambit paid off, proving popular enough to warrant two sequels, including Blade: Trinity, later this year. As a darker mix of action and horror, Hellboy can be compared to breakout movies like Blade or Spawn, while similarities might also be noted with movies like X-Men or League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen, since it also features a dark group of characters.

Dark Horse Comics has had mixed luck with movies based on their comics—the most memorable hit being The Mask, starring Jim Carrey, which fared better than Pamela Anderson’s Barb Wire. Their characters and comics are not nearly as known as staple characters from DC Comics, publisher of Superman and Batman, or Marvel, whose characters have been around for decades. Hellboy doesn’t even have a known star like a Carrey or Anderson, nor a strong leading man like Ben Affleck, Sean Connery or Wesley Snipes, which have helped other movies based on lesser known comics.

Originally, the movie was going to get an early summer release, but Sony realized it might have trouble facing bigger budget event movies like Van Helsing and Troy, so they moved it to the then free and clear April weekend. MGM then decided that it didn’t pose enough of a threat to their own male-targeted action-drama, Walking Tall, starring The Rock, which they moved to the same weekend.

Hellboy doesn’t take itself as seriously as some of the other superhero movies, and the inherent humor will allow for a more entertaining movie experience that can appeal to a wider audience like Spider-Man. Unlike Blade II, Del Toro’s latest venture is PG-13, allowing for younger teen males to go see it, and opening in over 2,700 theatres might give it a slight advantage over other movies based on little known heroes. The movie already has a high fanboy factor working for it, as the movie has been promoted heavily on sites like SuperheroHype and in magazines like Wizard. Hellboy’s success will be helped if Sony can get the new trailer for Spider-Man 2, their big movie for the summer, attached to it, as that will give people another reason to see this. Sony even held some unconventional sneak previews last Friday night at a single theatre in New York and Los Angeles, an event where all shows sold out.

Hellboy looks like a cool, fun movie, which should be enough to allow it to do nearly as well as The Matrix did when it opened exactly five years ago. With the only other direct competition for the male audience being the Rock’s remake of Walking Tall, it looks strong enough to come out on top this weekend thanks to its strong promotion and the heightened interest in the genre. With that in mind, expect it to coast to the top spot with an opening weekend somewhere between $25 and 27 million.

Related Comparisons:

Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Previous Box Office (in millions)	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
Blade II	3/22/02	2,707		$32.53	$12,017	$81.65
Blade	8/21/98	2,322		$17.07	$7,351	$70.10
Spawn	8/1/97	2,536		$21.21	$8,364	$54.97
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen	7/11/03	3,002		$23.08	$7,687	$66.46
Daredevil	2/14/03	3,471		$40.31	$11,613	$102.54
The X-Men	7/14/00	3,025		$54.47	$18,007	$157.30
Underworld	9/19/03	2,915		$21.75	$7,462	$51.48
Barb Wire	5/3/96	1,312		$1.84	$1,402	$3.78
The Mask	7/29/94	2,360	$1.87	$23.12	$9,797	$119.92
The Matrix	4/2/99	2,849	$9.57	$27.78	$9,751	$171.38
The X Files: Fight the Future	6/19/98	2,629		$30.14	$11,464	$83.89

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HOME ON THE RANGE (Walt Disney Pictures)
Starring (voices): Roseanne, Judi Dench, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Tilly, Randy Quaid, David Burnham, Ja'Net DuBois, Gregory Jbara
Directed by: Will Finn (The Road to El Dorado), John Sanford
Rated PG
Tagline: “Bust a Moo”

After receiving an eviction notice from the Patch of Heaven dairy farm, three cows work together to keep from losing their home by turning the tables and capturing the notorious cattle rustler, Alameda Slim, in exchange for the rich bounty.

A plot like that might get you quizzical stares at a typical Hollywood pitch session, but this being the latest animated family film from Disney, it has all of the right elements to appeal to the young children’s market: talking animals and music. Unfortunately, the very fate of traditional 2-D animation may lay in the hands of this unlikely farmyard film, since Disney seems ready to follow the path of other studios by cutting it out of their roster altogether in favor of computer generated animation. Home on the Range may end up being their last attempt at doing a traditional animation movie due to the poor showing of their other cartoon in recent years, compared to the success of Pixar’s CGI masterpieces. Although foreign animated films like Spirited Away and The Triplets of Belleville have found audiences of art loving adults, other movies based on animated mainstays like Nickelodeon’s “Rugrats” and “Pokemon” have done worse and worse over the last few years, as have other attempts at bringing television cartoon favorites to the big screen. Most recently, Disney tried to take their cable cartoon, Teacher’s Pet, to the big screen, but it bombed, grossing less than $7 million.

Unlike some of those other movies, Home on the Range is a completely original movie not based on previous fictional works, and while it looks like it could be funny, it seems more like something you’d see on Looney Tunes than something that would come from Disney. (Anyone remember Foghorn Leghorn?) Besides the different style of humor, the animation seems less sophisticated than normal Disney fare, which means it might be a turn off for older animation enthusiasts that sometimes enjoy to these movies. It may also confuse parents who might normally take their kids to see the latest Disney animated movie, like they did with last Brother Bear. While that did better than some of the other recent animated films, grossing over $80 million, it pales in comparison to some of Disney’s biggest animated classics like The Lion King, Tarzan, or even the more recent Lilo and Stitch.

Whether or not kids might be interested in a movie about talking farm animals is another story. The claymation classic, Chicken Run, produced by the men behind the “Wallace and Gromit” cartoons, might be a good indicator, although the movie’s summer release and impressive voice cast that included Mel Gibson helped account for its success.

At the center of this cast is the recognizable voice of popular stand-up comedian and sitcom star, Roseanne, who will be the strongest draw, although Oscar winning actors like Dame Judi Dench and Cuba Gooding Jr., also provide voices. While Roseanne has not been in the public eye for many years and she has not had any success on the big screen, her voice is distinctive enough to interest people in the movie. Cuba, on the other hand, has had decent success in comedies, including the Disney family film, Snow Dogs. Either way, star power is rarely a factor for cartoons as proven by DreamWorks’ disappointing flop, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, which bombed despite name talent like Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Disney’s own sequel to a classic, The Jungle Book 2, featured the voices of John Goodman and Haley Joel Osment, something that was mentioned in the commercials, which isn’t the case with Home on the Range.

The Disney name has allowed Home on the Range to get the widest release of the new movies this weekend, but they’re not putting nearly as much promotion into it as Brother Bear or Lilo and Stitch, maybe because it wasn’t produced “in-house”. Director Will Finn was the man behind DreamWorks’ moderately successful 2000 animated film, The Road to El Dorado, which grossed roughly $50 million when it opened almost exactly four years ago. Of course, in the time since that movie’s release, the bottom has fallen out of the animation market, and even Disney might not be enough to get this to a wider audience.

Hopefully, the long time since the last strong animated movie will be enough for parents to take their kids to see this, but facing the second weekend of the stronger family film, Scooby-Doo 2, won’t help. At best, it should be able to do as well or slightly better than some of Disney’s weaker efforts like 2000’s The Emperor’s New Groove, or the 2002 Thanksgiving flop, Treasure Planet, which equates to an opening weekend between $10 and 12 million. The cute premise and commercials might help it hold its business through the Easter holidays next week.

Related Comparisons:

Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Previous Box Office (in millions)	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
The Road to El Dorado	3/31/00	3,218		$12.85	$3,993	$50.80
Disney's Teacher's Pet	1/16/04	2,027		$2.46	$1,414	$6.48
Brother Bear	11/1/03	3,030	$0.40	$19.40	$6,404	$84.45
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas	7/4/03	3,086	$3.18	$6.87	$2,227	$26.29
Treasure Planet	11/29/02	3,227	$4.52	$12.08	$3,744	$37.49
The Jungle Book 2	2/14/03	2,808		$11.44	$4,075	$47.88
The Emperor's New Groove	12/15/00	2,801		$9.81	$3,502	$88.76
The Wild Thornberrys	12/20/02	3,012		$6.10	$2,025	$38.42
Rugrats Go Wild!	6/13/03	3,041		$11.56	$3,800	$39.40
Rugrats in Paris	11/17/00	2,934		$22.72	$7,744	$76.46
Chicken Run	6/23/00	2,491	$0.10	$17.11	$6,869	$106.79

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THE PRINCE & ME (Paramount Pictures)
Starring: Julia Stiles, Luke Mably, Alberta Watson, Ben Miller, Miranda Richardson, James Fox
Directed by: Martha Coolidge (Real Genius, Out to Sea, Rambling Rose)
Rated PG
Tagline: “This fairy tale is about to get real”

In this teen romance, a Wisconsin student studying to be a doctor (Stiles) falls in love with the crown prince of Denmark (Luke Mably), putting her career plans into question and forcing her to decide between being a doctor and having a life as royalty.

Is it just me or is this the exact same role that Julia Stiles played in her last movie, Mona Lisa Smile? This type of role also typifies her own life and career as of late, since it’s been well documented how Stiles decided to continue her education at Columbia University rather than focusing solely on acting, despite having early movie success. The way her career has been going, this was probably a wise move, as it might be hard for to get more starring roles if this movie fails.

The 23-year-old actress first got noticed in the teen comedy, 10 Things I Hate about You followed by a role as—irony of ironies--Freddie Prinze (sic) Jr.’s love interest in the romantic comedy, Down to You, neither which made waves at the box office. Her big break came in the 2001 teen drama, Save the Last Dance, about a ballet student who gets involved in the world of urban dance. That breakout hit made over $23 million opening weekend, setting a box office record for January, usually a slow period at the box office. Her enrollment at Columbia meant few movie roles. She starred in Tim Blake Nelson’s controversial and underrated high school drama, O (Othello), which was delayed for years after the Columbine shootings and also had a small role in the espionage thriller The Bourne Identity and 2003’s A Guy Thing another disastrous romantic comedy, this time with Jason Lee. Her most recent and significant role teamed her with an all-star cast including Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile, which had a $12 million opening weekend but did decent business over the past Christmas holidays. Stiles is already on the talk show circuit promoting the movie, but frankly, she’s a bit stiff and her appearances probably don’t help.

Unfortunately, Stiles’ career seems to be pending on a genre that has proved hit or miss in recent years. The formula could be traced back to Julia Roberts’ big break, the romantic comedy Pretty Woman, which set the standard for the rags-to-riches romantic movie as well as making her career as a bankable movie star. Hollywood quickly realized that women and young girls eat this stuff up, so every single young actress is being cast in roles like this, despite showing signs of diminishing returns. The movie looks a bit like The Princess Diaries, a G-rated Disney hit directed by Pretty Woman’s Garry Marshall, which made over $100 million in the late summer of 2001. The Prince & Me hopes to capture the same audience by catering to young girls’ fantasies of being swept away by a handsome prince. The theme has been used over and over in movies, with recent derivatives including Amanda Bynes’ What a Girl Wants, which opened this weekend last year, and Hillary Duff’s The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Unfortunately, Mandy Moore wasn’t able to sell this sort of vehicle with Chasing Liberty earlier this year, nor was Kate Bosworth with Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, so why should Stiles be able to do much better?

Paramount doesn’t have a very good track record marketing their movies, and this doesn’t seem like something they may have better luck with. That won’t stop them trying their best, by rolling The Prince & Me out in a number of sneak previews this past weekend, one on Saturday night for the date crowd and one on Sunday afternoon for the young girls. While this technique has proven successful for many movies in the last year, it’s becoming an overused ploy that doesn’t always work, especially with weaker movies like this one. The PG rating should help get the youngest of girls, but they’ll likely be dropped off in groups while the parents see something else.

We may as well face that this one is a dud. Opening at a time when there are plenty of movies to cover every movie-going demographic, this rehash of a formula that has proven unsuccessful twice this year will be lucky to make more than $6 million this weekend, before being slaughtered by the new movies opening over Easter weekend.

Related Comparisons:

Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
Mona Lisa Smile	12/19/03	2,677	$11.53	$4,306	$62.96
A Guy Thing	1/17/03	2,515	$8.01	$3,183	$15.54
O	8/31/01	1,434	$6.90	$4,812	$16.02
Save the Last Dance	1/12/01	2,230	$23.44	$10,511	$90.17
She's All That	1/29/99	2,222	$16.07	$7,232	$63.32
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton	1/23/04	2,711	$7.32	$2,700	$16.97
Chasing Liberty	1/9/04	2,400	$6.08	$2,533	$12.20
How to Deal	7/18/03	2,319	$5.81	$2,505	$14.11
What a Girl Wants	4/4/03	2,964	$11.43	$3,858	$35.99
The Princess Diaries	8/3/01	2,537	$22.86	$9,011	$108.24
Pretty Woman	3/23/90	1,325	$11.28	$8,513	$178.41

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WALKING TALL (MGM Studios)
Starring: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Johnny Knoxville, Ashley Scott, Neal McDonough, John Beasley
Directed by: Kevin Bray (All About the Benjamins)
Rated PG-13
Tagline: “One man will stand up for what’s right.”

In this movie, based on the 1973 drive-in favorite of the same name, professional wrestler The Rock plays Chris Vaughan, a special forces soldier who returns home to revive his family lumber business only to discover that the town has been corrupted by drugs and violence thanks to a crooked casino boss (Neal McDonough). Swearing to clean up his hometown, Vaughan takes matters in his own hand in a way that epitomizes the saying “speak softly and carry a big stick”.

The limitless string of remakes continues with a new vehicle for one of the decade’s most popular wrestlers, The Rock. Thirty years after the original movie helped make the career of Joe Don Baker, this modernization of the movie based on the life of Tennessee sheriff Buford H. Pusser uses a similar premise of a man trying to clean up his hometown. Sounds like a good match.

The descendant of a long line of professional wrestlers, Dwayne Johnson AKA The Rock was a mainstay in the World Wrestling Foundation throughout the 90’s going from a loathed bad guy to being a popular favorite among the sports entertainment’s dedicated fans. His autobiography, “The Rock Says”, even made the New York Times bestseller list in 2000. Following in the footsteps of Hulk Hogan, The Rock made the leap to movies with an appearance in the 2001 box office blockbuster, The Mummy Returns, playing the Scorpion King, a villain so compelling that he scored himself a spin-off prequel that opened the following year. Despite an April release, The Scorpion King managed to make over $36 million opening weekend, setting a record for an April release. There was as much expectation for The Rock’s next movie, the action-comedy, The Rundown, which paired him with comedic actor, Sean William Scott, but it didn’t fare nearly as well at the box office, making almost half as much as The Scorpion King its opening weekend despite rave reviews.

This time, “Rocky” is paired with Johnny Knoxville, star of the hit MTV reality stunt show, “Jackass”. Knoxville’s charm and good looks got him noticed by Hollywood getting him roles in box office duds like Big Trouble and Deuces’ Wild, as well as playing a slimy two-headed villain in the sci-fi/comedy sequel, Men In Black II. Knoxville really turned heads though when the big screen version of his television show, Jackass: The Movie, managed to score over $22 million its opening weekend, besting much stronger competition with a movie that cost only $5 million to make. Although his role in the film has been played down in the trailer and recent commercials.

Remakes have been popular in the last year as seen by The Italian Job, last weekend’s The Ladykillers, and horror remakes like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all proving to be fertile ground for box office hits. Walking Tall hopes to capitalize on this as well as the popularity of revenge dramas starring edgy anti-heroes. Last year this weekend, Vin Diesel appeared in the revenge drama, A Man Apart, a similar looking movie, although the Rock has a much wider reaching audience. Its appeal will be similar to that of movies like Michael Douglas’ Falling Down and Mel Gibson’s Payback, although the poor showing for DMX’s own revenge drama, Never Die Alone, last weekend does not bode well for the genre. MGM might not go so far as to push the “inspired by a true story” tag of the original movie, but that sort of false marketing has helped sell movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the horse epic, Hidalgo, if only because of the factuality of the stories behind the movies.

Walking Tall isn’t getting a release in nearly as many theatres as The Rundown, nor is it getting as much promotion, possibly because MGM hasn’t had much luck promoting these sorts of movies. (Examples: Dark Blue, Denzel Washington’s Out of Time) So far, they haven’t decided yet whether this is an action-drama, like the original movie, or a comedy. People who’ve seen the trailer may not realize that this is a serious movie, due to the Rock and Knoxville’s quips amidst the @ss-kicking. Later commercials take a more serious route, but confusing marketing like this rarely helps. The PG-13 rating may be a bigger hindrance, since the language and violence will be toned down.

This movie has been moved around a lot over the last few months trying to find a decent spot before settling on this weekend. Originally, it was meant to come out on April 16^th, which would have put it up against similar revenge movies, The Punisher and Kill Bill: Vol. 2. It was then moved up to Easter weekend, but then last month, it got moved forward another week, putting it up against Hellboy, which looks like a much stronger movie. To try to help build much-needed buzz, MGM held sneak previews in 750 theatres this past weekend, in hopes that it will help like they did The Rundown.

With two of male-targetted cable’s hottest stars, Walking Tall looks like the biggest draw for the guys, and in any other weekend, it would be the #1 movie. It’s too bad that the decision to put it up against Hellboy is going to seriously hinder the amount of business it might get opening weekend. The limited audience of male wrestling fans probably won’t be enough to help it make more than $14 to 16 million due to the Rock’s presence alone, but don’t expect word-of-mouth to be very strong.

Related Comparisons:

Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Previous Box Office (in millions)	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
The Rundown	9/26/03	3,152		$18.53	$5,880	$47.59
The Scorpion King	4/19/02	3,444		$36.08	$10,475	$90.34
The Mummy Returns	5/4/01	3,401		$68.14	$20,035	$202.01
Jackass: The Movie	10/25/02	2,509		$22.76	$9,072	$64.27
Men in Black II	7/5/02	3,557	$35.09	$52.15	$14,661	$192.40
Big Trouble	4/5/02	1,961		$3.55	$1,808	$7.26
A Man Apart	4/4/03	2,459		$11.02	$4,481	$26.50
Payback	2/5/99	2,720		$21.22	$7,801	$81.52
Falling Down	2/26/93	1,220		$8.72	$7,148	$40.90

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UNDER THE RADAR

Do you live in a major North American city? If so, there are a number of limited release movies worth checking out. And if you don't live in one of the cities in which these movies open, look for some of them to hit your area sometime in the next few months.

BENJI RETURNS: RAGS TO RICHES (Mulberry Square Releasing)
SHAOLIN SOCCER (Miramax Films)
SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER… AND SPRING (Sony Pictures Classics)
THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND (Paramount Classics)

Last week, Scooby Doo wasn’t the only returning canine favorite as Benji, the loveable dog from the 80’s is back in…what else?...Benji Returns: Rags to Riches. This time, Benji is paired with a hapless shaggy dog as they try to save Benji’s mother from a backyard breeder. Hoping to recapture some of the cute little dog’s former audience while getting new kids, the movie opened in, of all places, Jackson, Mississippi this past Friday. It will travel around the country over the next few months, with Benji and his trainer Joe Camp on hand to meet and greet. Check here to find out when Benji will be in your neck of the woods.

Steven Chow's hilarious martial arts comedy Shaolin Soccer, finally hits these shores after becoming one of China’s highest grossing films. Chow plays an enthusiastic supporter of Shaolin Kung-Fu who pulls together a motley crew of monks from his old Dojo to form a soccer team. Originally Miramax was going to release a dubbed version with voices provided by Chow and actress Bai Ling in wider release, but after being delayed repeatedly, it is getting a platform release in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco with the original Chinese soundtrack and subtitles.

The seasonal Chinese drama, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring takes place entirely on a small floating monastery as it explores the different stages of a man’s life from a cruel childhood to his lustful teen years, and a darker adulthood. Directed by Kim Ki-Duk, this moving look at the life cycle with one of the longest damn titles possible opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday.

The Believer’s Ryan Gosling stars as a sensitive teen that kills an autistic boy out of sympathy in The United States of Leland. The murder gets him sent to a juvenile hall where a teacher tries to find out why he committed the act, in hopes of quelling the tragedy that faces the respective families. Having premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year, Matthew Ryan Hoge’s directorial debut opens in New York and Los Angeles this weekend.

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THIS TIME LAST YEAR

Three new movies opened in the first week of April last year, vying for the top spot, and the winner was the Joel Schumacher thriller, Phone Booth, starring hot Irish actor Colin Farrell, coming off his success in Daredevil. With a strong promotional campaign from Fox, the movie opened in the top spot with just over $16 million. Teen cable star, Amanda Bynes, and Vin Diesel had a photo finish for second place as her teen comedy, What a Girl Wants, went up against the action-drama, A Man Apart. (Parallels of those movies could easily be drawn to this weekend’s openers The Prince & Me vs. The Rock’s Walking Tall.) Of the returning movies, Chicago and Bringing Down the House continued to hold onto the crowds that flocked to see them in March.

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Next week, one of the busiest Easter weekends in recent memory with five new movies: Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid star in the historical epic, The Alamo; The Princess Diaries’ Anne Hathaway stars as Ella Enchanted in a fantasy based on the book; Emile Hirsch discovers that a porn star is The Girl Next Door, while Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry face off once again in the crime comedy sequel, The Whole Ten Yards. Opening early on Wednesday, Cedric the Entertainer goes urban on a Chevy Chase classic in Johnson Family Vacation.

Copyright 2004 Edward Douglas