Box Office: 'Bring It On' Is Return Champ

Sept. 4, 2000 -- Cheers and fears may run rampant in the current slate of Top 10 movies, butperhaps the scariest box office news is that there’s nothing for filmcompanies to shout about.

This summer is a weak one, with no Sixth Sense or PhantomMenace to drive ticket sales. For the sixth weekend in a row, box officesales slumped 16 percent compared to the same period last year.

Box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., Inc. reported that betweenthe Memorial Day and Labor Day holiday weekends, moviegoers have shelled outapproximately $2.75 billion. That's a figure second only to last year, arecord-breaking box office summer. But rising ticket prices could mean thereare actually fewer bodies in theaters, Exhibitor Relations president PaulDergarabedian told the Associated Press.

Cheer to Stay

A bright spot in the charts is the teen cheerleader comedy Bring It On, which cartwheeled into the No. 1 slot its secondconsecutive weekend. The Kirsten Dunst rally vehicle made $14.5 million inthe four-day holiday period, according to box office estimates issuedMonday.

Bring It On's total was down 35 percent from last weekend, but nomatter — with lukewarm turns from two new releases (Whipped and Highlander: Endgame), it easily conquered thecompetition.

Immortal Life, MortalDraw

The fourth film in the Highlander franchise managed to debut at No. 5 with a decentfour-day haul of $6.4 million. Christopher Lambert recapped his role as asword-fighting immortal in the cult series, keeping Highlander:Endgame on par with the performance of other segments in the sci-fiseries. Highlander III summoned $5.6 million its opening weekend in1995.

The universally panned Whipped was just that, failing to crack theTop 10 with a limp $2.7 million estimated gross for the Friday-to-Mondayperiod. Amanda Peet, who received her first lead billing in the new sexcomedy, proved she still needs a solid ensemble cast to draw crowds. Herlast movie, The Whole Nine Yards, received $13.7 million when itbowed in February — with name actor Bruce Willis and Friends sourpussMatthew Perry at the center of the film's marketing campaign.

Age Before Beauty? NotHere

Jennifer Lopez's psychological thriller The Cell was No. 2 with $9.1 million in its third weekend.Actor-director-producer Clint Eastwood's flick about aging astronauts, Space Cowboys, was third with a four-day tally of $8.3million. Cowboys' total now stands at a solid $74.2 million.

Both The Cell and Cowboys rose one place, as Wesley Snipes'The Art of War slipped two places to No. 4 with $7.6 million inits second weekend.

BathtubBankroll

Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford's ghostly What Lies Beneath remained in sixth place with $6.2million after seven weeks. Why are crowds still drawn to the frighteningflick? Maybe they enjoy seeing Ford portray a villain, rather than ado-gooder patriot.

"There comes a point when you've exhausted your opportunities playing goodguys," the veteran actor recently told Mr. Showbiz. "And a scriptcomes along when all the current impressions people have of you and what youcan do can be turned on its ear … For me it was an excitingopportunity to play this character."

Reuters contributed to this story.