Spike’s got game. The angry auteur took first place at the box office for the first time ever (a fact that surprised the hell out of me) with He Got Game. With $8.8 million in domestic receipts, the film made $1.8 million less than Malcolm X’s opener, but the competition (Dracula and Home Alone 2) were a lot stronger than this week’s group of surrounding product. The one odd note here — Disney only put the film onto 1,319 screens, well below the now traditional 2000+ screen release pattern for major films. Had they been less conservative, the film would likely have passed the $10 million mark without much trouble. Oh, well. Something else for Lee to moan about.
The angels moved back in front of the devils as City of Angels continued to descend gracefully (27 percent to $6.6 million in weekend four) as The Big Hit took a big hit (44 percent to $6 million in week two). Les Misérables ($5.3 million for fourth place) was hardly a sensation, but its per-screen average of $3,588 was second best amongst the Top 10, behind only He Got Game. Word of mouth on Les Miz should be soft, but generally good, so expect the film to hold up pretty well next week. In fifth place, much to my surprise, was Black Dog. Even its $4.6 million take seemed surprisingly high for this inexplicably titled “Whatever happened to” Patrick Swayze flick.
In the Second Five, Titanic‘s drop slowed to just 16 percent in week 20. Throw another $4.1 million into the Big Boat. Paulie continues to stay solid as the world around him flutters. After dropping just 18 percent last week, the film dropped less than 1 percent this week, adding another $4.1 million to its total. The Object of My Affection fell 31 percent and five spots to eighth with $3.5 million to pass the $20 million mark. Lost In Space made what will probably be its last Top 10 appearance, falling into ninth place with $3.2 million. And last but not least, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Sliding Doors slid into the 10 spot with $1.7 million on just 495 screens with a $3,434 per-screen average. The film will likely slide into oblivion next week, but it could be one of those surprise cable/home video hits, based on word-of-mouth that I’ve heard. Dropping below the Mendoza Line (a baseball reference for those of you who hate sports) are The Odd Couple II, Mercury Rising, The Players Club and Scream 2, which is still chasing the $100 million mark.
TWO BAD MOVIES EQUAL: Two Girls and a Guy + Black Dog = Two Girls and a Black Dog. Black Dog gets caught with two female owners in the same apartment. When they catch him defecating all over both of their apartments, they corner him and he bites them both, but instead of rubbing his nose in it, he charms them into petting him. Benji, in a powerful directing debut, was forced by the MPAA to cut Black Dog’s solo oral sex scene, but complained, “Hey! I do it in public all the time, and I almost never get hosed down.” Starring Patrick Swayze, who plays Black Dog in a high-tech dog suit created by the Henson people so that Michael Jackson could wander the streets without bodyguards and a mask.
BAD AD WATCH: Black Dog sports pull quotes from The Interview Factory and Lisa Sanders of KCOP. Best of all, from Rick Anthony of LAFM (L.A. Film Market?), this classic: “A moving rush.” What the hell does that mean?
READER OF THE DAY: WARNING! Taiwanese info on Lethal Weapon 4 and Mulan to follow. If you don’t want to know — and, hey, it’s nothing that should ruin the movie too badly — stop now and don’t read this report from Steve Chien-Wei Weng: “I am so happy David went to vacation last week, so everyone could talk about whatever they want. I know you won’t believe it, but it’s true. I have some information about Mulan and Lethal Weapon 4. First, through an arrangement by Warner Bros., journalists flew from Taiwan to L.A., visited the Lethal Weapon 4 set and talked to Jet Li, Mel Gibson and Richard Donner. All the reports were printed in the local newspaper on April 30 and May 1. What did they say? Mel Gibson told them that Rene Russo‘s character will get pregnant in the end of movie, but they won’t get married (only plan to). He also said he will direct the new movie (Fahrenheit 451) but without Tom Cruise. (Gee, two big movie stars never meet, what a pity.) He didn’t know why news said so. When the journalists answered that the source was from the Internet, he said he didn’t like people creating the fan club websites for him. He thought that it was some kind of disturbance to his private life. Because Jet Li joined the LW4 team, we can be sure about one thing: there’ll be more fighting scenes for him, more emotional scenes for Mel and Danny. By the way, Jet Li’s character is Ku. Is there any possibility for Lethal Weapon 5? Richard Donner said the first one made him feel ‘enough,’ second one ‘surprise,’ third one was ‘unbelievable,’ this one ‘you never know.’
“Then, let’s talk about Mulan. Two days ago, Jackie Chan flew to Taiwan to do the voice job of the leading male character General Lee. He has already done the Cantonese version, this time it’s the Mandarin version. He said his character will marry Mulan in the end of the story.”

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