Entertainment

Sleepy Weekend At The Box Office

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 15, 2000 / 1:49 PM EDT / CBS

Technically it may be fall, but the fall film season has yet to kick into high gear, as CBS News Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd reports.

Box office grosses over the weekend were way down, allowing a sequel and a re-release to take the top two spots in the rankings.

Here's a look at the box office numbers according to Hollywood.com:

Urban Legends: The Final Cut debuted in the top spot with $8.8 million.
"If that's not indication of how bad it was, horror fans also welcomed the re-release of The Exorcist, which took in $8.5 million," said Hibberd.
Almost Famous was in third place with $7 million, followed by
Bring It On and
The Watcher.

The first Urban Legends "did pretty well and went on to $38 million." said Hibberd. "It's so funny when you talk about the expectations of Urban Legends: The Final Cut. It's like, what expectations?"

Hibberd says the "true story" over the weekend is The Exorcist. "Urban Legends was on 2,500 screens and The Exorcist was on a quarter of that. And it did only, you know, a little less."

Almost Famous is bringing in the over-25 crowd, "which may strike some oddly enough and it's one of these movies that -- unless you talk to [CBS News Early Show anchor] Bryant Gumbel -- it's got great word of mouth and it's growing. Between Friday and Saturday this weekend, the audience grew 55 percent which means people are giving it great word of mouth." Hibberd adds that the studios are "still rolling it out slowly."

Hibberd predicts that Kate Hudson (Goldie Hawn's daughter), who appears in Almost Famous, is going to be a star.

And Bring It On, the little cheerleader movie that could, is hanging on as one of the top box office attractions.

"This is kind of the surprise of the fall season, considering nothing else has happened," said Hibberd. Bring It On is "at $56 million and will probably make a little over $60 million. Who knew?"

Hibberd thinks the next good blockbuster movie will be Remember The Titans, starring Denzel Washington, which opens next weekend. Hibberd says the football movie based on a true story is "a terrific film that I think will do well."