Reaction Tepid to ‘Psycho’

Despite a hip marketing campaign, director Gus Van Sant’s remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 thriller, “Psycho,” provoked only moderate interest from 1998 audiences. Arriving during the first week of the short pre-Christmas lull, “Psycho” managed only an estimated $10.5 million on 2,477 screens. The film was a runner-up to “A Bug’s Life” in this week’s box office derby.

After the disappointing performances of its two most recent releases, “Meet Joe Black” and “Babe: Pig in the City,” caused a management shake-up, the “Psycho” launch is being greeted with a nowhere-to-go-but-up feeling at Universal Pictures, which is glad to have captured at least a segment of the youth crowd, according to a studio spokesman.

Since it cost about one-fourth as much as either “Joe Black” or “Babe,” the $25-million “Psycho” will not cause many Monday morning flop-sweat sessions at the beleaguered studio, even if it’s not the hit they were praying for. Saturday grosses were down from Friday, and unless word of mouth is upbeat, this is one remake experiment that won’t be repeated soon.

Proving that insects are indeed the superior species, “Psycho” debuted lower than Disney’s “A Bug’s Life” on the box-office evolutionary scale. Taking a less-than-expected post-Thanksgiving hit (48%), “Bug’s Life” posted a hearty estimate of $17.4 million in 2,701 theaters. With just under $70 million in less than two weeks, these bugs are more than marking time as they wait for the next big attendance surge, when kids are out of school for Christmas break.

Disney’s other two holiday releases, “Enemy of the State” and “The Waterboy,” nabbed third and fifth place, respectively, for the weekend. “Enemy,” which is in 2,458 theaters, grossed about $9.5 million for an impressive three-weekend total of close to $63 million. “Waterboy” continues to add to its total, bringing in about $6.6 million over its fifth weekend and passing $130 million.

Totals for the post-Thanksgiving weekend were strong for this time of year, 48% ahead of last year, with the top 12 films grossing an estimated $65 million, according to Exhibitor Relations. Box-office totals are on track to hit $7 billion this year (both here and abroad), up from last year’s record $6.35 billion.

As for “Meet Joe Black” and the “Babe” sequel, they are struggling to maintain visibility. In its fourth week, “Joe Black” was down to 2,180 screens and $2.4 million, for just under $40 million so far. Dogged by its disappointing opening, “Babe” looks unlikely to recover as second-week numbers plunged to $2.4 million on 2,385 screens, for slightly more than $11 million so far.

“Elizabeth” had the smallest percentage drop in the top 10. The period piece is the only film on the list in fewer than 2,000 theaters--540 to be exact--bringing slightly more than $2 million this weekend and about $10 million in two weeks of general release.

The audience for specialized films turned out this weekend to greet the debut of “Little Voice,” with $90,000 on just six screens. Miramax’s “Life Is Beautiful” continues on track as one of the bigger-grossing foreign films, with another $700,000 over the weekend on 134 screens and more than $6 million to date. “Waking Ned Devine” gets ready to play the lottery when it breaks wider next weekend after an excellent $150,000 or so on 9 screens this weekend and about $650,000 in only three weeks.