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'Alexander,' 'Kranks' Join Holiday Parade
2004-11-24
LOS ANGELES - "Alexander," Oliver Stone's ode to a Grecian warrior, rides into battle Wednesday, when the R-rated epic about the young conqueror will face a phalanx of films with broad family appeal, including the Thanksgiving holiday weekend's other newcomer, the Tim Allen comedy "Christmas With the Kranks."Last weekend, two PG-rated Disney releases -- "National Treasure," an adventure movie from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and Pixar Animation's "The Incredibles" -- proved potent competitors. "Treasure" opened at No. 1 with a $35.1 million haul, and previous champ "Incredibles" took in $26.5 million to place third in its third weekend. On Monday, the two films claimed the first and second positions, respectively, for the day. With "Treasure" collecting nearly $3 million and "Incredibles" $1.7 million, the weekend's No. 2 movie, "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," from Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies, slipped to third place, with $1.5 million. Although no one appears quite sure how the pecking order will play out this weekend, the top-grossing film is likely to command a figure in the $40 million range for the five days. The other contenders in the top five are expected to register numbers in the $20 million-$30 million spectrum. Sony Pictures' "Kranks," which not only hails from Revolution Studios but was directed by Revolution founder Joe Roth, will compete with the other family-oriented PG films as it opens Wednesday in 3,933 theaters. Based on a John Grisham novel with a screenplay by Chris Columbus, it also stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Erik Per Sullivan and Dan Aykroyd in a tale about a family that tries, unsuccessfully, to ignore the holidays. Allen has established credentials as a holiday draw. His 1994 comedy "The Santa Clause" opened on a nonholiday weekend in November to $19.3 million, and its sequel, "The Santa Clause 2," opened on another nonholiday weekend in November 2002 to $29 million. "Alexander," on the other hand, will be one of the few R-rated films in wide release. Among those movies, its main competition is Universal Pictures' "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," which was fifth last weekend with $10 million. But the sword-and-sandals saga, produced by Intermedia Films and released by Warner Bros. Pictures, also has a running time of nearly three hours, which will limit the number of times it screens at the 2,445 theaters where it will be playing. In May, Warners opened another big fat Greek movie, the Brad Pitt starrer "Troy," to a three-day gross of $46.8 million. But "Troy" entered a relatively open market, which is not the case for "Alexander," which stars Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer and Anthony Hopkins. Meanwhile, Miramax Films' Oscar hopeful "Finding Neverland" will expand into 513 theaters. And Warner Independent Pictures' "A Very Long Engagement," led by the "Amelie" twosome of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and actress Audrey Tautou, opens in limited engagements in hopes of establishing its awards season credentials. Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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