July 25, 1999 13:30
"Haunting" scares up big box office victory
LOS ANGELES, July 25 (Reuters) - "The Haunting," a critically maligned
horror movie starring Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, scared up huge
box office numbers in its opening weekend, while previous champion "Eyes
Wide Shut" tumbled down the rankings in its second round.
According to studio estimates issued Sunday, "The Haunting" earned about
$33.0 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period. It was followed by another new
release, "Inspector Gadget," at No. 2 with $22.0 million. Executives for the
films' respective studios, DreamWorks and Walt Disney Pictures, said the
openings far exceeded their expectations.
The teen sex comedy "American Pie" (Universal) slipped a notch to No. 3 with
$10.3 million, just ahead of "Eyes Wide Shut" (Warner Bros.) with $9.9 million.
Adam Sandler's "Big Daddy" (Columbia) rounded out the top five with $6.1
million.
One other film debuted in wide release this weekend, the beauty pageant
satire "Drop Dead Gorgeous" (New Line), but its $4.0 million sum was not
enough to break into the top 10.
The three-day sum for director Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," an erotic
thriller starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, slid 54 percent from last
weekend as bad word of mouth and the inevitable drop-off from a big opening
weekend hurt attendances, box office observers said.
"The Haunting," based on Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel "The Haunting of Hill
House" and directed by Dutch filmmaker Jan De Bont, also stars independent
film stalwarts Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor. The foursome gather at a haunted
house as part of an experiment by Neeson's character who does not realize it
is possessed by the souls of dead children. Critics complained that it was not
very scary, but -- as has been the case with many movies this summer --
audiences ignored them.
"Inspector Gadget," a live-action comedy based on a cartoon series, benefited
from the recent paucity of children's movies. The movie stars Matthew
Broderick as a robotic crime fighter whose body sprouts more gismos than a
Swiss Army knife.
DreamWorks is privately held. Walt Disney Pictures is a unit of Walt Disney
Co. , Universal Pictures is a unit of Seagram Co. Ltd. , Warner Bros. and New
Line Cinema are units of Time Warner Inc . Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony
Corp
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