Box Office: 'Parents' Scares Off Horrors

Oct. 29 -- Not even the most potent witch’s brew could jinx the steady success of Meet the Parents at the box office over the pre-Halloween weekend.

In a surprising twist, Robert DeNiro’s family comedy soundly doused the fire of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, the sequel to last year’s phenomenally popular scarefest. Meet the Parents earned $15.1 million to remain No. 1 for the fourth week in a row, according to box office estimates issued today.

Parents has now become the year’s 14th film to reach the $100 million mark. If Remember the Titans continues its swift climb, it could be the 15th member of that club. The No. 3 football drama grabbed $8 million this weekend, making for an overall cumulative of $87.7 million.

Blair Witch Scratches Into Second

The poorly-reviewed Book of Shadows, which was predicted to tally between $13 million and $25 million in receipts, scratched into second with $13.1 million. Artisan Entertainment spokesman Paul Pflug told Reuters he predicted the Blair Witch Project sequel would pay off financially, since its production budget was just $15 million, and added that the company had pre-sold foreign rights for what sources said was about $20 million.

The original Blair Witch film was made for $30,000 and went on to conjure an astonishing $140.5 million at the box office. A third installment of the franchise is expected to hit theaters in summer 2001.

Not-So Lucky Numbers

John Travolta’s Lucky Numbers didn’t exactly live up to its title, winning a limp $4.6 million to land in the seventh place slot. The Nora Ephron-directed lottery comedy was originally scheduled to be released in July, but industry insiders speculated that the film was bumped to an October bow in order to distance it from Travolta’s previous box office disaster, Battlefield Earth.

“It’s obviously a dark comedy concept that the audience didn’t embrace,” Paramount vice-chairman Rob Friedman said of the $60 million-budgeted Lucky Numbers.