'Two Towers' Rings Up Another Win

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" took in nearly $49 million to hold onto first place followed by "Catch Me If You Can" which took in $30 million. "Two Weeks Notice" starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock earned $16.1 million to finish in third place in the last weekly box office race of the year.

"Two Towers" is becoming one of the speediest films ever to cross the $200 million mark, according to studio estimates Sunday. Its weekend average of $13,508 per theater had "Two Towers" fulfilling predictions that it would outperform its predecessor, last year's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

"This film is the story of the holiday season," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "To say it's this generation's `Star Wars' is almost an understatement."

Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as real-life '60s con man Frank Abagnale Jr., debuted at No. 2. It also stars Tom Hanks as an FBI agent pursuing Abagnale, who became a master check forger and posed as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer while still in his teens. Playing in 3,156 theaters, it averaged $9,506 per screen.

Slipping to No. 3 was the Sandra Bullock-Hugh Grant romance "Two Weeks Notice," which earned $16.1 million in its second weekend for a total of $43.6 million. Jennifer Lopez's "Maid in Manhattan" was a close fourth with $13 million in its third weekend and an overall take of $57.4 million.

The four films, joined by a year-end rush of limited releases aiming for Academy Award consideration, were the stars of the biggest post-Christmas box office weekend ever, capping a year that has set records for tickets sales.

Already, box office receipts for 2002 have surpassed $9 billion, an increase of about 10 percent over last year's total. Movie theater attendance for the year is expected to end 5 percent higher than last year, Dergarabedian said.

The weekend held some bad news for studios. "Pinocchio," Robert Benigni's new live-action version of the Disneyfied Italian folk tale, took in just $1.1 million in 1,195 theaters. Rick Sands, chief operating officer at Miramax, said the poor showing may have been because the film was made in Italian and dubbed into English.

"We are not happy with the performance theatrically, but from a financial perspective we are fine," Sands said, noting that Miramax spent $21 million on "Pinocchio." "We knew it was a risk dubbing it and taking it to a mass audience."

The studio was holding out more hope for Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," a dark, R-rated epic that contrasts sharply with the usual lighthearted holiday fare. Expanding to 2,190 theaters in its second weekend, "Gangs" earned $11.2 million, a $5,114 per-theater average that gave it a fifth-place finish at the box office. Overall, it has grossed $30.1 million.

In limited release, the musical "Chicago," starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger, danced away with $2.1 million in 77 theaters for an impressive $27,300 per-theater average. The film, also distributed by Miramax, goes into wider release in January.

"We were only limited by seats. We are basically selling out everywhere," Sands said.

The weekend brought a flurry of other small-release debuts trying for critical acclaim and Academy Award notice.

Among them "The Hours" grossed $337,000 in only 11 theaters for a whopping $30,636 average. The drama stars Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf and Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep as two women influenced by the writer's work.

The Holocaust drama "The Pianist" opened on just six screens and pulled in $104,051, or $17,342 per venue.

This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday were the last weekend of 2002 so Early Show Entertainment Contributors Jess Cagle and Laurie Hibberd reflect back on the best and worst in cinema of 2002.

Here are Hibberd's thoughts on her Hits of 2002:

• "About Schmidt" – Terrific acting, original story and great ending.
• "The Two Towers" - Impressed by sheer visual spectacle of the film.
• "Chicago" - An incredible ride starting with the opening number with Catherine Zeta Jones. Great talent.
• "Igby Goes Down" – Great performances and story line.
• "Signs" – Great storytelling with humor and suspense.

• "Full Frontal"
• "Queen Of The Damned"
• "Rollerball"

• "Adaptation" - Brilliant, twisting, smart and funny movie. Great performance by Meryl Streep. "Probably the most imaginative movie to come out of Hollywood since, well, 'Being John Malkovich,'" he says.
• "Catch Me If You Can" – Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg at the top of their game. Film poses an engaging moral dilemma: Do you root for the criminal on the run (Leo), or the FBI guy chasing him (Tom)? The movie is too good to provide the audience with an easy answer.
• "Chicago" - A great adaptation of a musical that Hollywood has been trying for years to put on the screen. Made even better by the fact that Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones are the stars.
• "Lilo and Stitch" - A real old-fashioned animated movie, with great heart and an almost unbearably cute space alien (Stitch). But also sassy and modern, and it probably has the most realistic portrayal of a troubled young heroine of any animated movie in Disney's history.
• "Far From Heaven" - A really risky movie that starts out seeming like a parody of corny 50s movies and through the magic of the performances and the directing becomes a real, emotionally involving work of art.

• "8 Mile" – "Here's the bottom line: He's a pandering misogynist and homophobe, and the movie was a weird attempt to make him more likable. His scenes with a gay character were unrealistic and patronizing."
• "Swept Away" – Acting was below high-school standards, says Cagle. "One of the worst movies I've ever seen."
• "The Sweetest Thing" - A gross-out sex comedy about three bawdy women. It proved that women can be just as offensively sex-obsessed as men, says Cagle.

American Film Institute's Best Films of 2002 in no particular order:

• "Gangs of New York"
  
• "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
  
• "About Schmidt"
  
• "The Hours"
  
• "About a Boy"
  
• "Chicago"
  
• "Adaptation"
  
• "Antwone Fisher"
  
• "The Quiet American"
  
• "Frida"

1. "Spiderman" $404 Million
   
2. "Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones" $302 Million
   
3. "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" $240 Million
   
4. "Signs" $227 Million
   
5. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" $220 Million