'Jeopardy' Moves Into First
Double Jeopardy, a tale of revenge and wrongful imprisonment, did some solid time at the box office as the weekend's top movie earner.
Starring Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones, Double Jeopardy debuted with a three-day total of $23.7 million, according to industry estimates Sunday.
The Martin Lawrence comedy Blue Streak dropped to No. 2 in its second weekend with $13.2 million. Eight weeks into its run, the Bruce Willis ghost story The Sixth Sense remained in third place with $8.5 million.
This weekend's other major debuts opened weakly. The somber Jakob the Liar, starring Robin Williams as a widower who cheers up fellow Jewish ghetto residents with fake reports of Allied victories over the Nazis, was eighth with $2.2 million.
Mumford, an ensemble comedy about psychotherapy in a small town from The Big Chill director Lawrence Kasdan, took in $2 million for ninth place.
With Judd as the wrongly accused suspect and Jones in his latest fugitive-hunter role, Double Jeopardy was an action movie that appealed to women and men, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., which tracks the box office.
Judd plays a woman whose husband faked his own death and framed her for the killing. Jones plays her parole officer.
Paramount pitched the movie well to movie-goers, Dergarabedian said.
"It had a terrific marketing campaign. It was everywhere," Dergarabedian said. "This is a perfect case of a movie that was not going to fly in under the radar. It was positioned as a top fall entry."
The film takes its title from the legal precept that a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same crime - meaning that since Judd's character already has been punished for her husband's murder, she can now hunt him down without consequences.
The idea resonated with audiences in the same way the premise of Robert Redford's Indecent Proposal did, said Wayne Lewellen, distribution president for Paramount.
"Would you sleep with Robert Redford for a million dollars? That's a simple, quick concept that's easy to grasp," Lewellen said. "I think people were drawn to the concept that she could shoot her husband on Main Street and they couldn't do anything to her."
Jakob the Liar was hurt by its grim subject matter and mixed reviews, said Ed Russell, executive vice president for publicity for the movie's distributor, Sony Pictures.
The film also was a tough sell coming on the heels of Roberto Benigni's Holocaust hit Life Is Beautiful, which won three Oscars, Russell said.
"When you have a couple of films of similar subject matter and the second film out doesn't get as strong reviews, that's where you're hurt by it," Russell said.
Sixth Sense, the summer's box office surprise, has taken in $225.1 million and moved ahead of Aladdin as Disny's second-highest grossing film behind The Lion King, which made $312 million. Edging past Mrs. Doubtfire, Sixth Sense also climbed into the top 20 all-time moneymakers.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures are to be released later Monday:
- Double Jeopardy, $23.7 million.
- Blue Streak, $13.2 million.
- The Sixth Sense, $8.5 million.
- For Love of the Game, $6.6 million.
- American Beauty, $6 million.
- Stigmata, $4.8 million.
- Stir of Echoes, $2.3 million.
- Jakob the Liar, $2.2 million.
- Mumford, $2 million.
- Runaway Bride, $1.6 million.