'Cast Away' Sails to First
Dec. 24 -- For a castaway, Tom Hanks sure had a lot ofcompany over the holiday weekend.
Hanks’ new movie Cast Away, in which he plays a man strandedfor four years after a plane crash, took in $30.1 million this weekend to debut as the top film. The movie reunites Hanks and Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis.
Last weekend’s No. 1 movie, Mel Gibson’s What Women Want, slipped to second place with $16.3 million for the long weekend, pushing its total to $64.9 million in 10 days of release, according to studio estimates today.
Record Debut
Nicolas Cage’s comic fantasy The Family Man opened in thirdplace with with $12.8 million. Cage plays an unmarried Wall Streetbroker who gets a chance to see what his life would be like had hewed his college sweetheart.
Cast Away became the biggest movie debut for a Christmasweekend, surpassing the $25.3 million that Robin Williams’ PatchAdams grossed in 1998. It was Hanks’ second-best opening, just$500,000 behind Saving Private Ryan.
Studio executives said today’s estimates took more guessworkthan usual because it was hard to predict how many people wouldhead to the movies on Christmas Eve.
“These numbers are etched in Jell-O,” said Nikki Rocco, headof distribution for Universal, which released The Family Man.
Grinch Takes Home the Money
No. 4 was Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the year’s top-grossing movie. Its weekend take was $11.6 million,giving it a $232 million total.
The comedy Miss Congeniality, starring Sandra Bullock as atomboy FBI agent who goes undercover as a beauty pageantcontestant, premiered in fifth place with $10.3 million.
Ang Lee’s acclaimed adventure Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon jumped into the top 10. After two huge weekends in narrow release, the Mandarin-language film expanded to 141 theaters and grossed$2.8 million to finish at No. 10, averaging $19,748 per cinema.
Playing at 2,771 locations, Cast Away averaged $10,860 pertheater.
