NEITHER SNOW NOR SLEET STOPS CRUISE FANS

Your Profile
In the News
- Movie Reviews
- New Trailers
- Film
- Television
- Video Games
- Digital Media
- Music
- Technology
- Copyright
- Gossip & Stuff
Box Office
Development
- Literary Sales
- Open Writing
- Open Directing
- On The Move
- Most Active
- Studio Development
  - 20TH CENTURY FOX
  - ARTISAN
  - BVI
  - COWBOY
  - DIMENSION
  - DREAMWORKS
  - FINE LINE
  - FOCUS FEATURES
  - FOX SEARCHLIGHT
  - GOLDWYN
  - HERE!
  - IDP/GOLDWYN
  - IFC FILMS
  - KINO
  - LIONS GATE
  - MAGNOLIA
  - MGM/UA
  - MIRAMAX
  - NEW LINE
  - NEW YORKER
  - PARAMOUNT
  - PICTUREHOUSE
  - SONY
  - UNIVERSAL
  - WARNER BROS.
  - WEINSTEIN CO.
  - WELLSPRING
  - WINSTAR
- InfoTrack
Production
Job Market
Calendar

NEITHER SNOW NOR SLEET STOPS CRUISE FANS
Tuesday, December 9 2003

Although moviegoers needed the constitution of a Samurai warrior to head out to the nation's theaters over the weekend, given blizzard conditions in some parts of the country, they nevertheless arrived in sufficient numbers to put $24.4 million in the box-office coffers for Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai. While the figure fell far below Cruise's Minority Report ($35.6 million) and Mission: Impossible II (57.8 million), Warner Bros. pointed out that it represented the biggest opening ever for this calendar weekend and the third-largest December opening for an R-rated movie in history. The weather, it would seem, hurt the current raft of family films the hardest. With ticket prices already significantly discounted for kids, parents' decisions to keep their offspring indoors resulted in a huge percentage drop from the previous week. Universal's The Cat in the Hat plummeted 70 percent to $7.3 million, dropping it to fifth place from first. Elf fell 62 percent to $8.1 million. Disney's The Haunted Mansion was off 60 percent to $9.5 million.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. The Last Samurai, Warner Bros., $24,271,354, (New); 2. Honey, Universal, $12,856,040, (New); 3. The Haunted Mansion, Disney, $9,394,185, 2 Wks. ($45,974,409); 4. Elf, New Line, $8,026,797, 5 Wks. ($139,527,719); 5. The Cat in the Hat, Universal, $7,141,855, 3 Wks. ($85,297,270); 6. Bad Santa, Miramax, $7,014,010, 2 Wks. ($27,138,311); 7. Gothika, Warner Bros., $5,250,356, 3 Wks. ($49,545,578); 8. The Missing, Sony, $4,034,563, 2 Wks. ($21,805,272); 9. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, 20th Century Fox, $3,722,008, 4 Wks. ($72,555,668); 10. Love Actually, Universal, $3,561,360, 5 Wks. ($48,743,275).