Cruise flies high at box office with 'Vanilla Sky'
Tom Cruise's new psychological thriller "Vanilla Sky" shone brightly over the North American box office in its first weekend, but the film's forecast is cloudy as "Lord of the Rings" leads a slew of new releases over the Christmas holidays.According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, "Vanilla Sky" (Paramount) grossed a sturdy $25 million for the three-day period beginning December 14, while incumbent champ "Ocean's Eleven" (Warner Bros.) slipped to No. 2 with $23.1 million and the comedy spoof "Not Another Teen Movie" (Columbia) opened at No. 3 with $13.1 million.
Some rival studio executives had expected a better start for "Vanilla Sky," which boasts two of Hollywood's highest paid actors -- Cruise and Cameron Diaz -- as well as acclaimed director Cameron Crowe, who won an Oscar this year for writing "Almost Famous." Cruise's new Spanish girlfriend, Penelope Cruz, also starred, providing yet another publicity angle.
The $60 million remake of Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar's 1997 "Abre Los Ojos" stars Cruise as a media tycoon who may be disfigured, may be a killer and may be cryogenically preserved. Or not. Critics blasted the confusing film, with the Wall Street Journal labeling it "unquenchably pretentious."
Executives at Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., said they were thrilled with the opening, which was on target. Unlike Cruise's recent hits, such as the "Mission: Impossible" films, "Vanilla Sky" played to a narrower audience: primarily sophisticated viewers in the larger towns, said Wayne Lewellen, the studio's president of distribution.
About 70 percent of the audience for the R-rated movie was aged over 25, and females slightly outnumbered males, according to exit polling data provided by Paramount.
The $25 million haul "is not bad," said Paul Dergerabedian, president of box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. "For a film that is not his typical mainstream role ... it shows that he can open any film."
Nonetheless, the film's opening is the lowest for a new No. 1 movie since "K-Pax" bowed with $17.2 million for October 26-28. Since then, the box office has been ruled by the mighty troika of "Monsters, Inc." "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and "Ocean's Eleven."
'Rings' on the way
"Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," the first of three highly anticipated films based on novelist J.R.R. Tolkien's celebrated series, opens on Wednesday, while Friday sees the release of five films: the Jim Carrey drama "The Majestic," the Meg Ryan romance "Kate & Leopold," the kids cartoon "Jimmy Neutron" and the comedies "Joe Somebody" and "How High." On Deember. 25, Will Smith enters the ring with "Ali."
Cruise's last comparable highbrow film, "Eyes Wide Shut," opened at No. 1 in July 1999 with $21.7 million, and then lost 54 percent of its audience the following weekend.
The top 12 films this weekend grossed $89.2 million, up 8.6 percent from last weekend, but down 9.5 percent from the year-ago period, when Mel Gibson's "What Women Want" opened at No. 1 with $33.6 million.
After 10 days in release, the Vegas crime caper "Ocean's Eleven" has grossed $73.2 million. Steven Soderbergh directed the remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film, enlisting the likes of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.
"Not Another Teen Movie," an R-rated spoof on the fading teen movie genre, is shaping up to be a profitable release, said a spokesman for Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp. The film cost $15 million to make.
"Harry Potter" (Warner Bros.) fell two places to No. 4 with $9.9 million, taking its 31-day haul to $253.3 million. The war drama "Behind Enemy Lines" (Fox) also slipped two places, to No. 5, with $5.5 million. Its 17-day total is $38.9 million.
Warner Bros. is a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. Twentieth Century Fox is a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc.
Among limited release films, the highlight was "The Royal Tenenbaums," director Wes Anderson's ensemble comedy about a dysfunctional family. The film, released by Walt Disney Co.'s Touchstone Pictures, grossed $254,000 from a total of five theaters in New York and Los Angeles. It goes into wide release on January 4. The film stars Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke and Owen Wilson. Its per theater average was $50,813, compared with the $9,117 average racked up by "Vanilla Sky" in 2,742 theaters.
Disney's Miramax Films unit launched three movies to meet the December 31 deadline for Oscar consideration.
"Pinero," starring Benjamin Bratt as late poet Miguel Pinero, totaled $20,000 from one theater each in New York and Los Angeles. "Iris," a biopic with both Kate Winslet and Judi Dench essaying late English novelist Iris Murdoch, did $21,000, also from one theater each in New York and Los Angeles.
Considerably less successful was Brazilian director Walter Salles' feuding family saga "Behind The Sun," which pulled in just $4,700 from one Los Angeles theater.
