Preview and Projections for the Weekend of November 26, 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 last minute updates based on actual theatre counts.

High praise this week to Geoffrey Kleinman, editor of DVD TALK, for predicting that SpongeBob SquarePants would do as well as it did last week. Nice one!

WEEKEND PROJECTIONS - final update 11.23.04

Thanksgiving weekend is usually one of the three or four busiest holiday movie weekends of the year, which may be why this one looks like a bit of a logjam, with two new movies opening into a busy market place held in a grip by Disney and a talking sea sponge that has the kids enthralled. This is either the perfect climate for an R-rated historical war epic by one of America’s great filmmakers to offer something different or the absolute worst. Either way, Oliver Stone will try to capture some of the audience that flocked to Troy over the summer with Alexander (as in “the Great”), featuring the impressive cast of Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, and Anthony Hopkins. Then again, the Thanksgiving weekend tends to be all about family and holiday movies, which is the perfect environment for Christmas with the Kranks, a high concept comedy teaming Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. Despite facing stronger family fare, the latter might have of an edge to take the top spot over the weekend, even if it doesn't do very well in its first two days. By its very nature, Alexander will do better business Wednesday and on Thanksgiving, and then drop-off significantly over the weekend. On the other hand, Johnny Depp’s Finding Neverland, which has received much acclaim in limited release, expands nationwide this weekend into a 513 theatres, and it should have a decent entrance into the Top 10 closer to the bottom. Other popular art house fare like Alexander (no relation) Payne’s Sideways and the biopic Kinsey will expand into more cities this weekend; the former may make a play for the bottom of the TOp 10.

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ALEXANDER (Warner Brothers)
Starring: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Val Kilmer, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Rory McCann, Elliot Cowan, Joseph Morgan
Directed by: Oliver Stone (Platoon, JFK, The Doors, Any Given Sunday, Natural Born Killers and much more)
Genres: Historical, War, Epic, Drama
Rated R
Theatre Count (estimated): 2,350+
Tagline: “The greatest legend of all was real.” (The year isn’t even up and someone is already recycling the tagline from Jerry Bruckheimer’s King Arthur. When will they learn?)

Two-time Oscar winning director Oliver Stone chronicles the life of Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell), the Macedonian warrior who led his armies across the known world conquering 90% of it by the age of 27. The film covers everything from his tumultuous childhood due to dysfunctional parents, played by Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer, to his greatest battles.

Decades ago, historical epics were standard Hollywood fare with movies like Ben Hur and Spartacus regularly winning awards and doing incredible box office business. Since these epics were expensive to produce, the genre didn’t last very long, but four years ago, Ridley Scott revived it with Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe. It attained a great degree of critical and commercial success, nabbed a bunch of Oscars, and began a feeding frenzy by studios and producers to historic characters on which to base big budget epics.

The subject of television movies and a 1956 starring bad boy Richard Burton, Alexander the Great must have seemed like the perfect fodder for another Gladiator type film. At one point, there had been four films based on the Macedonian in some stage of development, including projects by Moulin Rouge’s Baz Luhrman and Martin Scorsese. The latter two combined forces, before Scorsese brought his chosen Alexander, Leonardo DiCaprio, over to The Aviator, his upcoming biopic about millionaire Howard Hughes.

Having wanted to tell the story of the conqueror for many years, Oliver Stone was able to get his project into production before the others, getting the $150 million financing from European independent Intermedia Films, who also funded Terminator 3. Alexander may be a return to form for the director who first got attention and awards for his 1981 war epic Platoon. Having made a number of political documentaries in recent years, Alexander will also be Stone’s first major film in the five years since his football drama Any Given Sunday. Although he’s considered one of America’s great filmmakers, his career had been erratic, making classic films like Wall Street and Born on the Fourth of July and smaller movies like Talk Radio and U-Turn. So far, Platoon is his only film to ever make more than $100 million at the box office, although a few others have grossed over $70 million.

To play the great leader, Stone chose Irish actor Colin Farrell. Although it may be an odd casting choice, Farrell proved his box office potential by starring in four back-to-back #1 movies last year, something that few other actors can claim. Farrell has been laying low since the last of these, the remake of the ‘70s television show S.W.A.T, with appearances in three smaller indie films including the Irish drama Intermission and A Home at the End of the World, which got more attention for the editing out “Little Colin”. Despite his lack of major films, Farrell’s reputation has made him a bonafide celebrity, creating much interest among the public at large, especially women, with his tabloid antics. Farrell is a good actor though, and Alexander’s success will depend on whether people can believe the raven-haired Irishman as a blonde Greek leader of men.

Farrell’s co-stars Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins and Val Kilmer all have something in common, having starred in huge box office hits before their careers were stalled by a number of bombs. After winning an Oscar early in her career, Jolie made the jump into action movies like Gone in 60 Seconds and Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Last year was a bumpy one for the starlet with the Tomb Raider sequel bombing, followed by the even bigger disaster Beyond Borders. This year, Jolie has been a bit more prominent from the thriller Taking Lives to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and providing her voice for DreamWorks’ Shark Tale. It’s odd that Jolie is playing Alexander’s mother Olympia, since she is only one year older than Farrell.

Likewise, Anthony Hopkins achieved great acclaim for his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, reprising the role for a sequel and a prequel, but his non-Hannibal films haven't done nearly as well. His last one, The Human Stain with Nicole Kidman, barely made $5 million in theatres last fall. Val Kilmer is reunited with Stone for the first time since starring as Jim Morrison in Stone’s rock biopic The Doors, playing a role that fits his reputation as the tyrannical King Phillip, Alexander’s father. Kilmer’s career took a bit of a downturn after starring as the Caped Crusader in Batman Forever, although he seems to be attempting a comeback. So far this year, Kilmer has starred in David Mamet’s political thriller Spartan and the dreadful romantic comedy Stateside, neither which did well. The all-star cast is rounded out with Jared Leto (Panic Room) and Rosario Dawson (way too many movies to list).

The Cast
Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
S.W.A.T.	8/8/03	3,202	$37.06	$11,575	$116.64
Phone Booth	4/4/03	2,481	$15.02	$6,054	$46.56
Daredevil	2/14/03	3,471	$45.03	$12,974	$102.54
The Recruit	1/31/03	2,376	$16.30	$6,861	$52.79
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow	9/17/04	3,170	$15.58	$4,915	34.78
Taking Lives	3/19/04	2,705	$11.46	$4,236	$32.68
Beyond Borders	10/25/03	1,798	$2.08	$1,155	$4.43
The Human Stain	10/31/03	160	$1.03	$6,463	$5.38
Hearts in Atlantis	9/28/01	1,751	$9.53	$5,440	$24.19
Spartan	3/12/04	832	$2.01	$2,418	$4.36
The Saint	4/4/97	2,853	$16.28	$5,706	$61.34

This past summer, Warner Brothers released Wolfgang Peterson’s $150 million historical epic Troy, followed a few months later by Jerry Bruckheimer’s King Arthur for Disney. Of the two, Troy had much stronger box office potential with its cast of Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana, but both films were criticized for ditching the magical aspects from the original legends, something that killed King Arthur. You wouldn’t think that Alexander would have that problem, but already, a big deal has been made about how Alexander is depicted as a bisexual, something conveniently left out from Achilles’ lifestyle from Troy. This has not boded well with people, most notably Greece (yes, the country) who has threatened to file suit against Stone, who has created controversy before, while building a reputation for “embellishing the truth” for the sake of cinema. Problem is that this type of war epic usually appeals to older guys, and the homoerotic nature of the lead character could be a big turn off, especially in the South and MidWest. It also might turn off the few women that might see the movie in order to swoon over Farrell.

Thanksgiving has never been a good time to release an R-rated adult film, with the biggest opening to date over the holiday being Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan’s follow-up to The Sixth Sense, which made almost $46 million in a few hundred more theatres than Alexander. There probably isn’t nearly as much anticipation for Stone’s latest, as well as a more limited audience. It also had little competition for the older market. The last two years have seen classic examples of strong directors trying to open a non-family film over Thanksgiving as Steven Soderbergh’s remake of Solaris with George Clooney and Ron Howard’s Western thriller The Missing failed to find audiences.

Alexander could be hurt more by the poor reviews that have taken the film to task for its long running time and slow pace, and they may be bad enough to kill off any of the advance buzz that has been building. Stone’s film has already been delayed, apparently to edit out some of the more graphic war scenes and overt homosexual overtones, although the “official” word was that it was moved to Thanksgiving to give it a “stronger presence during Oscar season”. Some may remember that Warner Brothers released Tom Cruise’s historical epic The Last Samurai the weekend after Thanksgiving last year. It didn’t open particularly well, nor did it get the Oscar attention expected either. Considering the moderate release Alexander is getting this weekend--almost 1,000 theatres less than Troy--the powers that be at the WB must be aware of the problems surrounding this project, but its three-hour running time will not help much either. At least, the film is being well promoted with related specials on the History and Discovery Channel about Alexander and his battles.

Related Comparisons
Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Previous Box Office (in millions)	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
King Arthur	7/9/04	3,086	$8.43	$15.19	$4,924	$51.80
Troy	5/14/04	3,411		$46.87	$13,739	$133.23
The Last Samurai	12/5/03	2,908		$24.27	$8,346	$107.46
Braveheart	5/26/95	2,035	$2.64	$12.91	$6,344	$75.59
Gladiator	5/5/00	2,938		$34.82	$11,852	$186.61
Any Given Sunday	12/24/99	2,505	$7.05	$13.58	$5,421	$75.53
Natural Born Killers	8/26/94	1,510		$11.17	$7,397	$50.28
JFK	12/20/91	1,164		$5.22	$4,485	$70.41

Bottom Line: While historical epics are not the big box office they once were, they are attempting a comeback and Oliver Stone’s effort should stir up a great deal of interest and curiosity among older males. Whether it’s accepted as a classic like Ben Hur or reviled as a disaster like Cleopatra will determine how much long-term business it has after its decent opening weekend.

Projection: $30 to 33 million over the five-day holiday (mostly on Wednesday and Thursday) but less than $90 million total.

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CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS (Sony Pictures)
Starring: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Erik Per Sullivan, Cheech Marin, Jake Busey, M. Emmet Walsh
Directed by: Joe Roth (America’s Sweethearts, Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise)
Genres: Comedy, Family, Holiday
Rated PG
Theatre Count (estimated): 3,000
Tagline: “No! Ho! Ho!”

When their daughter says she won’t be coming home from college for Christmas, Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) decide to go on vacation instead of celebrating the holidays, something that doesn’t bode well with their neighbors, especially when the plans change and they end up staying home for the holidays.

Every year, Christmas movies like The Santa Clause, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas and last year’s Elf and Bad Santa do big business over the Thanksgiving weekend, as families seek out suitable holiday fare to see after a day of shopping at the mall. Based on the bestselling novel Skipping Christmas from John Grisham, who is much better known for his courtroom dramas, Christmas with the Kranks is the type of high concept comedy that features a lot of physical comedy and jokes that are easy for mainstream audiences of all ages to get. Christmas with the Kranks has the added benefit of starring a man whose name has almost become synonymous with Christmas thanks to two equally successful holiday movies.

Before appearing in The Santa Clause, Tim Allen was the star of television’s popular sitcom “Home Improvement,” but his other films have gone from disappointments like Jungle 2 Jungle to outright bombs like Joe Somebody and Big Trouble. The only thing that saved his film career was his decision to revisit his most popular character in The Santa Clause 2. Allen’s popular co-star Jamie Lee Curtis first got attention as a teen from her role in John Carpenter’s Halloween and its sequel, but she’s become better known for comedies like Trading Places (1983) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, her first of six. After a return to the Halloween franchise in 1998 for the 20^th Anniverary film Halloween: H20, Curtis’s career had a bit of a lull until she returned to comedy in Disney’s remake of Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan, which grossed over $100 million. Christmas with the Kranks reunites Curtis with her Trading Places co-star Dan Aykroyd, the Saturday Night Live alum, who has starred in many classic hit comedies like The Blues Brothers and Ghost Busters.

Kranks’ director Joe Roth is better known for his production company, Revolution Studios, although he did direct Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones successful romantic comedy America’s Sweethearts. Nostalgia fans should appreciate that Grisham’s novel was adapted for the screen by Christopher Columbus, who has success at adapting books into successful holiday, having helmed the classic Christmas films Home Alone, as well as Mrs. Doubtfire, all of which opened on Thanksgiving weekend. More importantly, Columbus is known as the man who brough the first two Harry Potter books to the screen to huge success.

Kranks may seem a bit cynical about the holidays, but there’s apparently a market for that as proven by last year’s Bad Santa. (See This Time Last Year) It provided a darker look at the holidays, not unlike National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase, which oddly, opened after Thanksgiving fifteen years ago, but still earned almost $70 million. Comparing Kranks to Surviving Christmas, the recent Christmas stinker starring Ben Affleck and James Gandolfini, makes little sense since that movie was released too early to capitalize on holiday business. By comparison, Kranks comes out in a weekend where family and holiday films tend to do well, and its appeal to a wide range of ages will make it the type of comedy that families decide to see when they arrive at the theatre. John Grisham fans may not even be aware that it’s based on his book, since the name was changed to avoid confusion with Surviving Christmas.

Related Comparisons
Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Previous Box Office (in millions)	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
Joe Somebody	12/21/01	2,506		$3.55	$1,418	$22.74
The Santa Clause 2	11/1/02	3,350		$29.01	$8,659	$139.14
The Santa Clause	11/11/94	2,183		$19.32	$8,850	$144.83
Freaky Friday	8/8/03	2,954	$10.90	$22.20	$7,516	$110.22
Bad Santa	11/28/03	2,005	$4.51	$12.29	$6,131	$59.43
Elf	11/7/03	3,337		$31.11	$9,324	$172.70
102 Dalmatians	11/22/00	2,704		$19.89	$7,355	$66.90
101 Dalmatians	11/29/96	2,794		$33.50	$11,990	$60.83
Home Alone 2	11/20/92	2,222		$31.13	$14,010	$172.70
Home Alone	11/16/90	1,202		$17.08	$14,210	$285.76
Christmas Vacation	12/1/89	1,744		$11.75	$6,737	$71.30

Bottom Line: Christmas with the Kranks has just enough easy laughs and holiday cheer to be the perfect generic family comedy for a weekend where that type of stuff brings in large audiences. It probably won’t set any records, although it should be able to stand its own against the other family movies already in theatres.

Projection: $32 to 33 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend (mostly on the weekend) and around $85 million total.

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FINDING NEVERLAND (Miramax Films)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Dustin Hoffman, Julie Christie, Kate Winslet, Radha Mitchell, Freddie Highmore
Directed by: Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball)
Genres: Biopic, Drama, Theatre
Rated PG
Theatre Count: 513
Tagline: “How far can your imagination take you?”

Johnny Depp plays J.M. Barrie, the noted playwright responsible for creating “Peter Pan,” in a story about how spending time with a young widow (Kate Winslet) and her four boys helped inspire him to write his greatest work.

After two weeks in limited release earning around $1.5 million, Finding Neverland begins Miramax’s yearly Oscar push, trying to convince audiences nationwide to see the movie that critics have been praising en masse, as the biggest buzz film since Jamie Foxx’s performance in Ray. Most of that buzz surrounds Johnny Depp’s performance after the actor received his first Oscar nomination last year. He even got the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s Fall Preview Issue a few months back, creating a lot of interest among people who have been patiently waiting for the movie to open in their area.

The ridiculously good-looking Depp has been a popular star, especially among women, ever since his role on the FOX show 21 Jump Street, and his two decade film career since then has spanned a number of genres from dramas to comedies. To date, Depp’s most popular films have been his long-time collaborations with Tim Burton, starting in the early 90’s with Edward Scissorhands, followed by the biopic Ed Wood, which bears similarities to Neverland, and their biggest hit together, 1999’s Sleepy Hollow. Depp had further biopic experience when he played drug mogul George Jung in the late Ted Demme’s 2001 film, Blow, which he followed later that year with the Alan Moore based thriller From Hell. It wasn’t until last year when Depp finally moved to the next level as a box office star when he appeared in Jerry Bruckheimer’s Pirates of the Caribbean, which found the actor a whole new audience of young fans, as well as getting him that first Oscar nomination. Since then, he played a key role in Robert Rodriguez’s Once Upon a Time in Mexico and anchored the Steven King adaptation Secret Window, neither very strong follow-ups in the way that Finding Neverland is.

Depp has a very talented and experienced co-star in Kate WInslet, who has received her own share of Oscar attention for films like the James Cameron blockbuster Titanic—the highest grossing film of all times, no less--as well as smaller films like Iris and Quills. Earlier this year, she broke type appearing opposite Jim Carrey in Michel Gondry’s quirky romantic comedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but Finding Neverland returns her to the type of British period piece for which she is better known.

The rest of the supporting cast is equally talented featuring veteran actor Dustin Hoffman in a comedic role as the theatre owner funding Barrie’s often disastrous efforts, Julie Christie as Kate Winslet’s domineering mother and Radha Mitchell as Barrie’s wife. The movie’s real find is young Freddie Highmore, who often steals scenes from Depp with an emotional performance, something that so impressed the more experienced actor that he suggested him to Tim Burton to play Charlie in their upcoming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Director Marc Forster may seem like an odd choice to direct a film based on the writer of a popular children’s book like Peter Pan, since his last film was the very adult Monster’s Ball, which earned Halle Berry her first Oscar. That said, Neverland may be a good chance for Forster to prove that he’s more than a one trick pony.

Barrie’s Peter Pan has become a much-loved classic since he wrote it, finding success on the stage and big screen with Disney’s animated classic in 1952. With the exception of Steven Spielberg’s star studded reinvention Hook, which did decent business over the holidays in 1991, the character has fallen a bit by the wayside. Disney tried to revive the character with a 2002 animated sequel to the original, but that and last year’s live action version of Barrie’s classic failed to get as much business as expected.

The question is whether Miramax has done its job at getting the word around to convince people that this is a film worth seeing and not just another boring biopic. Although it’s also a fine showcase for a talented actor, Finding Neverland isn’t a biopic in the vein of something like Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind or Kinsey, because it mixes fantasy into the reality to create something closer to Tim Burton’s last film Big Fish. It also focuses on only one part of the playwright’s life, a bit like Miramax’s popular Shakespeare in Love, which swept the Oscars in 1999, earning over $100 million.

Regardless, the film has been generating nothing but great reviews with an 84% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Entertainment Weekly even selected the film as one of their must-see films of the year, and its amazing IMDB ranking—64% of voters gave it a 10 out of 10--proves it to be a real crowd-pleaser. Being the type of movie that can be enjoyed as much by adults as their older kids, Finding Neverland seems like the perfect Thanksgiving movie, so it should do decent business.

Related Comparisons
Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Previous Box Office (in millions)	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
Secret Window	3/12/04	3,018		$18.24	$6,043	$47.78
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl	7/11/03	3,269	$24.00	$46.63	$14,264	$305.41
From Hell	10/19/01	2,305		$11.32	$4,911	$31.60
Blow	4/6/01	2,249		$12.44	$5,535	$52.94
Edward Scissorhands	12/14/90	1,080		$6.33	$5,861	$53.98
Peter Pan	12/26/03	2,813	$3.67	$11.14	$3,960	$46.40
Return To Neverland	2/15/02	2,605		$15.62	$5,997	$48.41
Hook	12/13/91	2,197	$3.54	$13.52	$6,154	$119.65
A Beautiful Mind	1/4/02	1,853	$21.21	$16.57	$8,940	$170.71
Shakespeare in Love	1/22/99	655	$22.25	$3.63	$5,542	$100.24

Bottom Line: The draw of Johnny Depp and the Oscar buzz surrounding his performance will add to the magic of J. M. Barrie’s popular character to bring a wide audience of women and girls into Finding Neverland over the holidays, as they look for something a bit less violent than Alexander. It should also have continued legs as the holidays approach and awards are announced. (Update: Miramax has decided to not give this as wide release as planned, so its weekend projection has been reduced accordingly.)

Projection: $5 to 6 million over Thanksgiving weekend on its way to $50 million total.

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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. A lot of new movies in limited release this weekend, with no less than three dealing with war.

Opening in New York and Los Angeles:
A FOND KISS (Castle Hill)
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (Warner Independent)

Prolific Scottish director Ken Loach returns with A Fond Kiss, the story of a Pakistani DJ in Glasgow whose parents want him to marry his cousin Jasmine, but instead, he falls in love with a Catholic school teacher, and the two try to have a relationship in a community that won’t accept them.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is reunited with his Amelie star Audrey Tautou for A Very Long Engagement, a love story about a young woman trying to find her lover, who went missing during a botched-up attempt to get discharged during World War I. Her endless journey to find him puts her in contact with strange characters and a government conspiracy to cover-up what happened. MY REVIEW (Coming Soon!)

Opening in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco:
GUERILLA: THE TAKING OF PATTY HEARST (Magnolia Pictures)

Robert Stone’s documentary Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst takes a look at the events surrounding the Symbionese Liberation Front, a terrorist cell that terrorized the West Coast of America in the early ‘70s, kidnapping heiress Patty Hearst and forcing her to commit crimes for them. MY REVIEW (Coming Soon!)

Opening in Los Angeles and Pasadena:
STRAIGHT-JACKET (Regent Releasing)

Richard Day’s comedy Straight-Jacket is about a ‘50s Hollywood star who marries a common secretary in order to hide his homosexuality, but since he never bothers to tell her, it causes further problems in his life and career. Opens in Cali on Friday, other cities in December.

Opening in Utah:
THE WORK AND THE GLORY (Excel Entertainment)

Based on Gerald N. Lund’s series, The Work and The Glory is a story set in 1820 about a family that moves to upstate New York where they get caught up in a religious struggle when the two brothers fight for the affection of a wealthy merchant’s daughter. It opens on Wednesday in 17 Utah locations.

Opening in New York:
EASY (Magic Lamp Releasing)
NOTRE MUSIQUE (Wellspring Media)
PURPLE BUTTERFLY (Palm Pictures)

In Easy, Marguerite Moreau (Wet Hot American Summer) plays a 25-year-old woman who attracts the biggest jerks, as she goes from one night stand to the next, but when she finally has a chance at having a real relationship, she has to choose between two very different guys. Jane Weinstock’s directorial debut opens at New York’s Village East Cinema after playing at Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals.

Legendary French director Jean-Luc Godard’s latest film Notre Musique is an examination of the role of war in modern civilization made up of three distinct sections: Hell is made up of archival war footage, Purgatory is set in Sarajevo under reconstruction, and Paradise takes place on a beach guarded by U.S. Marines. This powerful work opens on Wednesday at New York’s Film Forum.

Set in Shanghai during 1928, Lou Ye’s wartime drama Purple Butterfly stars Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s Ziyi Zhang as a Chinese girl fighting the Japanese in a resistance group, when she encounters her former Japanese lover who left her to fight in the war. Opens at New York’s Cinema Village on Friday. (Zhang also stars in Zhang (Hero) Yimou’s new film The House of Flying Daggers, opening next week.)

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THIS TIME LAST YEAR

Last Thanksgiving was just as busy as this one with four new movies trying to capture the early holiday business of mall shoppers. Disney released their second “theme park ride movie” of the year with The Haunted Mansion starring Eddie Murphy, trying to dethrone Murphy’s Shrek co-star Mike Myers from the top spot as The Cat in the Hat. It was a close race as both earned just over $24 million on the weekend, but The Cat scratched out a slight victory by only $180,000. Third, fourth and fifth places were filled out by returning movies, but the weekend’s biggest hit was Billy Bob Thornton’s dark comedy Bad Santa with Bernie Mac, which earned just over $12 million in 700 fewer theatres than the other two new movies. Ron Howard’s western thriller The Missing earned just under $11 million, while the historic action flick Timeline, based on the Michael Crichton novel, made just over $8 million, both far underperforming expectations.

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Next week, Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen form a love quadrangle in Mike Nichols’ Closer. (Since it will not be going wide, next week will be an abbreviated column.)

Copyright 2004 Edward Douglas