By Walid Habboub
January 2, 2003
2003 started off with a bang as The Two Towers and Catch Me If You Can
continued to dominate the North American box office. With both films
firmly implanted in the top two positions respectively, the importance
of daily numbers begins to wane and the all powerful weekend steps into
the spotlight once again.
The Two Towers’ cumulative total as of December 31st was $219.27 million, which would make it the
fifth highest grosser in the fiscal year 2002 if the race stopped there. Of course, the film is
likely to finish second, and possibly first, in the race for top earning
movies to be released in 2002. It’s important to acknowledge The Two
Towers’ 2002 feat as it sits in fifth place even though it has only been
in release for 14 days. That’s only two weeks compared to the full runs
that the other films received this year.
Towers pulled in another $11.57 million, a rise of 30%, which puts its
official total at $230.84 million. The average increase for the top ten
teams was 43%. With a couple of really strong gainers, Drumline at 100%
and The Hot Chick at 95%, it is safe to say that Towers’ increase was
average. Comparatively speaking, Towers increased 59% between Christmas
Eve and Christmas Day when the average increase was 87%, so the appreciation
is consistent with its quite positive pattern so far. The film will
certainly finish at least second for 2002 releases and the weekend
numbers will determine just how close it will get to Spider-Man’s
$405.69 total.
Catch Me if You Can continued its strong performance as it pulled in
$9.1 million, an increase of 15%, which brought its total to a very
healthy $71.7 million. The film will likely flirt with the $200 million
mark but could do better depending on its staying power over the next
few weekends.
With the holiday season officially over, we can once again look forward
to the weekend taking up the prime position on most box office watcher’s
lists. There’s really no way to properly forecast how the films will
fare. What we do know is that Towers and Catch Me should have some
strong staying power weekend after weekend. With both films receiving
critical praise and fan approval, they should hold on strong against
January’s less-than-stellar competition.
View other columns by Walid Habboub
