Box Office: Hanks Sweeps Holiday Audiences Away

December 24 -- If Tom Hanks ever has even a moment of doubt about his box-office appeal, the performance of his new film, Cast Away, should forever banish any doubt that audiences really, really like him

In early box-office estimates for the weekend before Christmas, Hanks' new film, which he carries almost single-handedly, earned $30 million — the best Christmas opening on record, according to Exhibitor Relations.Hanks stars as an overworked businessman marooned on a desert island for four years, and the two-time Oscar winner is on-screen solo for much of the film. Fine by most audiences, who chose to see a sometimes speechless Hanks over new films from Nicolas Cage, Sandra Bullock, and yes, even Dracula.

Cast Away, which reteams Hanks with his Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis, didn't best last week's $33.6 record-setting opening of Mel Gibson in What Women Want, but it's now Hanks' second-best opening (after 1999's Saving Private Ryan). It's also the third-best December opener, after What Women Want and 1997's Scream 2.

Women, which stars Mel Gibson as a male chauvinist who acquires the ability to read women's minds, took in $16.3 million in its second week, sneaking into second place.

Grinch Now Top Film of 2000In fourth place was The Grinch with $11.5 million. This week, it passed up Mission: Impossible 2 as the top-grossing film of 2000. After six weeks (four of them at No. 1), the Universal family film has earned $235.2 million, glad tidings indeed for the studio, director Ron Howard, and star Jim Carrey.

New Films From Cage, BullockNew in theaters this weekend was the holiday-themed The Family Man, which stars Nicolas Cage as a single career man who gets a glimpse of what life would have been like if he'd married his college sweetheart (Téa Leoni). The It's a Wonderful Life-esque drama took in $12.8 million to place third.

Also opening this weekend was Sandra Bullock's "Lethal Weapon at a beauty pageant" comedy Miss Congeniality, which was fifth place with $10.3 million, or if you prefer pageant parlance, fourth runner-up to Tom Hanks' box-office king.