Entertainment

Military Film Stages Box Office Coup

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 7, 2000 / 11:09 AM EDT / CBS

Four new films opened this weekend with enough strength to knock Julia Roberts back on her heels and out of the top spot, reports CBS Early Show Contributor Gail O'Neill.

According to Hollywood.com. Rules of Engagement won the battle at the box office, earning $15.3 million. Erin Brockovich which has held the top spot since its March 17 release, was in second place, taking in almost $100 million in just three weeks and $10.1 million this weekend.

The Road to El Dorado, the DreamWorks animated film about the search for the lost city of gold, is still on the map - in third place with $68.9 million. Return to Me, a new romantic comedy starring X-Files heartthob David Duchovny as a widower romancing a woman (Minnie Driver) who received a heart transplant from his dead wife, came in fourth with $8 million.

Fifth place went to The Skulls, a thriller about a secret society at an Ivy League school. It took in $6.4 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were: Ready To Rumble, a new wrestling film starring David Arquette that took in $5.6 million; Romeo Must Die, $4.4 million; High Fidelity, $4.2 million; Final Destination, $3.9 million; and Oscar winner American Beauty, $3.3 million.

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While two very different films attracted the biggest crowds this weekend, they shared the same secret to their success, which really is no secret at all.

Rules of Engagement plays off the old standby genre of military courtroom drama. Erin Brockovich could be considered a modern-day Norma Rae. But these old hollywood story lines bring in rave reviews.

"It's an old reliable, sure," Glenn Kenny of Premiere magazine said of Erin Brokovich, "but it's done in a new way. There are new elements involved."

Rules of Engagement delivers on an old theme new leading men, emotional pull and strong visuals, he says. It stars Samuel L. Jackson as a Marine colonel on trial for a rescue mission gone bad in the Mideast. Tommy Lee Jones is his shaky, boozing defense attorney.

"Two really great actors mix it up in a tension-filled drama that, for many, carries a whiff of A Few Good Men," which was such a great success," Kenny says.

Erin Brockovich may steal some thunder from crusader movies of the past, but the secret to its longevity is the phenomenon of Julia Roberts herself.

"What Erin Brockovich does so brilliantly is it lets Julia be Julia - brassy, appealing, not taking guff from anyone, for lack of a better word, that's the persona that Pretty Woman really solidified with the American public," Kenny says.

Both are "eel good" movies with involving, interesting plots.

"It took a couple of really big boys to knock Julia Roberts out, and Jones and Jackson did it," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks movie ticket sales.

Rules of Engagement was the fourth of five recent Tommy Lee Jones movies to debut in the No. 1 spot. The others were Men in Black, Volcano and Double Jeopardy. U.S. Marshals opened in second place behind Titanic in March 1998.

Kenny had just one minor artistic complaint about Rules of Engagement: In the early scenes, Jackson and Jones whenare depicted as fighting together in the Vietnam war, their young age makeup is not incredibly convincing.

Though Rules of Engagement has a military theme, women made up nearly half of the audience, said Wayne Lewellen, distribution president for Paramount, which released the picture.

"I think it was perceived as an intelligent movie and not just a pure action movie," Lewellen said. "And the guys take the girls with them."

Critics say the romantic comedy Return to Me settled in fourth place because it lacked major star power and it's skewed to an older, female crowd that doesn't always run out to see a movie on its opening weekend. But it's a sweet film and it may have staying power.

Other films that opened this weekend were:

Black and White, a film by maverick director James Toback that received many raves among its mixed reviews but took in a disappointing $2.3 million in its first weekend. An examination of cultural clash and convergence whose cast includes boxer Mike Tyson playing himself, Black and White averaged a meager $1,791 per theater in 1,284 cinemas.
East-West, a French film that received an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language picture. It opened in five theaters in New York City and Los Angeles and grossed $58,251. The film averaged an impressive $11,650 per theater, compared with $4,849 in 3,155 cinemas for Rules of Engagement.