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LOS ANGELES, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Crime may not pay for Tom Cruise.
The box office superhero's first outing as a villain, in director Michael Mann's thriller "Collateral," made off with a middling $24.4 million during its first three days at the North American box office, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.
The opening is in the same range as Cruise's previous R-rated efforts like last December's "The Last Samurai" ($24.3 million) and 2001's "Vanilla Sky" ($25 million). But it represents the second-smallest No. 1 debut this summer. The smallest was the anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which earned $23.9 million on many fewer screens.
Last weekend's champion, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's suspense film "The Village," fell to No. 2 with $16.6 million, as bad word-of-mouth saw the film lose a hefty two-thirds of its audience from last weekend.
It was followed by the Matt Damon spy thriller "The Bourne Supremacy" with $14.1 million in its third weekend, the Denzel Washington conspiracy drama with $10.8 million in its second weekend, and the Brittany Murphy romantic comedy "Little Black Book," which opened with a disappointing $7.0 million.
Overall business was down sharply, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The top 12 films earned about $97.7 million, the least since the first weekend of May, when the sum was $94 million.
TOM IN TAXI
"Collateral," which cost about $65 million to make, was released by privately held studio DreamWorks SKG, where executives said they had hoped to open above the $20 million mark suggested by pre-release surveys.
Cruise plays an assassin who commandeers a taxi, driven by Jamie Foxx, so that he can knock off a series of targets across Los Angeles in one night. It's a far cry from the lovable roles he played in films like "Top Gun" and "Jerry Maguire."
The 67 percent drop by Walt Disney Co.'s "The Village" is the steepest second-weekend slide by a box office champ this summer. Even the early-summer dud "Van Helsing" fell only 60 percent in its second round. After two weekends, "The Village" has earned $85.7 million. At the same time in its cycle, Shyamalan's previous film, 2002's "Signs," was at $118 million after a 51 percent drop.
"The Bourne Supremacy" has earned $124.3 million after three weekends. It was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co. -controlled NBC Universal.
"The Manchurian Candidate," from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, has earned $38.5 million after two weekends.
08/08/04 13:48 ET
The box office superhero's first outing as a villain, in director Michael Mann's thriller "Collateral," made off with a middling $24.4 million during its first three days at the North American box office, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.
The opening is in the same range as Cruise's previous R-rated efforts like last December's "The Last Samurai" ($24.3 million) and 2001's "Vanilla Sky" ($25 million). But it represents the second-smallest No. 1 debut this summer. The smallest was the anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which earned $23.9 million on many fewer screens.
Last weekend's champion, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's suspense film "The Village," fell to No. 2 with $16.6 million, as bad word-of-mouth saw the film lose a hefty two-thirds of its audience from last weekend.
It was followed by the Matt Damon spy thriller "The Bourne Supremacy" with $14.1 million in its third weekend, the Denzel Washington conspiracy drama with $10.8 million in its second weekend, and the Brittany Murphy romantic comedy "Little Black Book," which opened with a disappointing $7.0 million.
Overall business was down sharply, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The top 12 films earned about $97.7 million, the least since the first weekend of May, when the sum was $94 million.
TOM IN TAXI
"Collateral," which cost about $65 million to make, was released by privately held studio DreamWorks SKG, where executives said they had hoped to open above the $20 million mark suggested by pre-release surveys.
Cruise plays an assassin who commandeers a taxi, driven by Jamie Foxx, so that he can knock off a series of targets across Los Angeles in one night. It's a far cry from the lovable roles he played in films like "Top Gun" and "Jerry Maguire."
The 67 percent drop by Walt Disney Co.'s "The Village" is the steepest second-weekend slide by a box office champ this summer. Even the early-summer dud "Van Helsing" fell only 60 percent in its second round. After two weekends, "The Village" has earned $85.7 million. At the same time in its cycle, Shyamalan's previous film, 2002's "Signs," was at $118 million after a 51 percent drop.
"The Bourne Supremacy" has earned $124.3 million after three weekends. It was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co. -controlled NBC Universal.
"The Manchurian Candidate," from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, has earned $38.5 million after two weekends.
08/08/04 13:48 ET
