Entertainment

<I>Gladiator</I> Slays The Competition

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 15, 2000 / 3:40 PM EDT / CBS

Gladiators and aliens battled for supremacy at theaters this weekend and the audience chose a tale of ancient Rome.

According to Hollywood.com, Gladiator remained in the top spot for the second week in a row, taking in $24.2 million, just $8 million less than it made in its opening weekend very impressive.

Its primary competition was John Travolta's Battlefield Earth which debuted in second place with $12.3 million. U-571 held onto the third spot with $5.7 million.

There was a three-way tie for fourth place. Frequency, Center Stage and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas all took in $4.8 million each.

Gladiator, the tale of a wronged hero seeking vengeance in the arena, is gaining a reputation for lots of action and a strong performance by Russell Crowe, reports CBS News Early Show contributor Laurie Hibberd. She said moviegoers went in expecting one thing and came out talking about another.

"Ordinarily, a movie like Gladiator would be going after primarily a male audience, but the spectacle and romance of it has got female movie-goers caught up in it, too," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks movie ticket sales. "That bodes well for Russell Crowe and his future."

The film also benefited from a weak field of new movies.

Travolta's sci-fi thriller, is based on L. Ron Hubbard's bestseller about humans revolting against alien conquerors in the year 3000, received almost universally terrible reviews.

review

Big-Budget Bust
Learn about Battlefield Earth from CBSNews.com's Rob Medich who survived some really lame alien dialogue to write a review.

"We're No. 2 and happy to be there in such a competitive marketplace," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released Battlefield Earth. "When John opens up a movie, there's no doubt about it."

Besides Battlefield Earth, Sony's ballet drama Center Stage took hard knocks from many critics, as did Trimark's Held Up, a comedy starring Jamie Foxx. The Norm McDonald comedy Screwed was so bad Universal did not screen it for reviewers beforehand

Screwed opened at No. 8 with $3.4 million, and Held Up was tied for No. 10 with Keeping the Faith at $1.9 million.

U-571 and an earlier military film, Rules of Engagement, which brought in $1.8 million for 12th place in its sixth week of release, have found favor with audiences who want to see more patriotism on the big screen.

summer

Summer at the Cinema
Spies, dinosaurs, cartoon characters, and endangered sailors are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the movies you can expect to hit your local multiplex this summer.

Disney's Dinosaur, a computer-animated spectacle about talking prehistoric reptiles on the run from a killer meteor, is likely to stomp all over Gladiator to take the box-office trophy next weekend.

Five days later, the summer movie season officially begins with Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 2 opening for Memorial Day weekend.

By then, Gladiator probably will have topped $100 million, said Jim Tharp, head of distribution for DreamWorks, which released the film. That would make Gladiator the second movie released this year to hit that mark. The first was Erin Brockovich, which is in 13th place with $1.6 million after nine weeks.

"Honestly, I think we'll continue to play very well into July," Tharp said.

A new screen version of Hamlet, set in modern corporate Manhattan, did well in limited release. Starring Ethan Hawke, the movie debuted at four sites with $61,000 for an impressive per-theater average of $15,250, compared with Gladiator's average of $8,257 at 2,943 cinemas.

Hamlet expands to more theaters next weekend.

Filling out the top 10 were Where the Heart Is at number seven with $3.6 million and Love and Basketball at number 9 with $2 million.