HOLLYWOOD - Blade 2 was a slashing success at the box office, opening in first place to a razor sharp $33.1 million.Ice Age slid into second place with a still solid $31.1 million, melting only 33 percent. E.T.'s 20th anniversary reissue opened in third place, celebrating with $15.1 million. Also helping to drive ticket sales to record setting heights were holdovers Showtime with $8.2 million and Resident Evil with $6.6 million.
For the second consecutive weekend, key films--those grossing $500,000 or more--enjoyed summer sized grosses. Studio estimates put ticket sales at $132.7 million, down less than one percent from last weekend's $133.8 million. Business was up nearly 75 percent from last year's $76 million.
Distribution sources said that when the weekend's final numbers are released Monday they could be lower than today's estimates because of competition from tonight's Oscar telecast. Adult appeal films, in particular, are considered to be the most vulnerable to competition from the Oscars.
For years the industry avoided having a negative impact at the box office by holding the Oscars on Monday night, the weakest night of the weak for ticket sales. Last year, the Oscars were moved to Sunday night. A key reason for the move was to take advantage of there being less traffic in Los Angeles on Sundays so those attending could get to the ceremonies more easily.
THE TOP TEN
New Line Cinema's R rated vampire thriller Blade 2 kicked off in first place to a bloody good ESTIMATED $33.1 million at 2,707 theaters ($12,228 per theater).
Blade 2's average per theater was the highest for any film playing this weekend.
Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, it stars Wesley Snipes.
"It could be heading to $100 million," New Line distribution president David Tuckerman said Sunday morning.
"This was just terrific. It's Wesley's biggest opening and it almost doubled the first Blade's opening (of $17.1 million the weekend of Aug. 21-23, 1998)."
Looking at the opening weekend demographics, Tuckerman said exit polls showed were encouraging because they showed the urban appeal film played to a broader audience than expected. Those on hand were 69 percent non-African-American and 31 percent African-American.
"Non-African-Americans were 55 percent male and 45 percent female, which also is terrific," Tuckerman said. "The African-American audience was equally divided 50-50 (by gender). By age (the overall audience) was equally divided under and over 25."
Looking at New Line's timing in releasing the film now, Tuckerman observed, "One of the reasons I picked this date was because (in terms of upcoming openings) there was only Panic Room, which is not in our demo at all. It looks to me like there's four weeks for it to play without anything to bother it. And it looks like we're going to play for a while."