‘Matrix’ Shows Its Muscle

The Wachowski brothers’ sci-fi cum martial arts action film, “The Matrix,” starring Keanu Reeves, rebooted the nation’s flagging box office over the Easter weekend with a three-day estimate of $27.6 million on 2,849 screens, and $37.2 million in its first five days of release. That’s the best debut of any film in 1999, the biggest April opening ever and the-second largest spring start after Jim Carrey’s “Liar Liar” in 1997.

The Wachowskis’ edgy second feature, which also stars Laurence Fishburne, is based on a script they had tried to get made for several years, and which Warner Bros. has owned since 1994.

“They had an idea for something different and we finally said yes,” says the film’s producer, Joel Silver, who had previously worked with the Chicago-born Marvel comic-book writers-turned-moviemakers on the screenplay for “Assassins,” the Sylvester Stallone action film.

After cutting their directorial chops on the $4-million thriller “Bound”--”almost an audition tape for them,” says Silver--the brothers tried again, presenting Warners and its new Australian financing partner Village Roadshow with an jentirely storyboarded project.

Because it was filmed in Australia, the effects-laden film wound up costing about $60 million, “about a third of what it would have cost if we’d made it here,” says Silver.

Reviews were generally strong in the regular media and particularly within the Internet community (appropriate, considering the film’s themes). And while the demographics were heavy with younger and older males last Wednesday, by the weekend it had evened out and was attracting most segments of the population, according to Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman. Exit polls also have been very strong, he added.

The two other new national releases placed a distant second and third. Disney/Touchstone’s low-budget teen comedy “10 Things I Hate About You” got off to an amiable start with $8.7 million over the weekend on 2,271 screens, and almost $12 million in its first five days. “Hate” will benefit from spring break during the week and will try to hold its own against two additional youth-oriented arrivals next weekend, “Never Been Kissed,” starring Drew Barrymore, and “Go,” with Katie Holmes and Scott Wolf.

“The Out of Towners,” starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, seemed to attract older audiences, particularly females. Paramount Pictures’ quasi-remake of a Neil Simon original scared up an OK $8.1 million in its first three days on 2,102 screens but will need strong legs to stay in the race over the long haul.

Thanks largely to “Matrix,” which accounted for one in every three tickets sold among the top 12 films, weekend totals climbed to approximately $77 million, according to the tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. That’s almost 7% ahead of last year’s leading dozen, a rare feat for 1999, which has been stalled behind last year’s record box office pace.

The arrival of a breakout performer like “Matrix” should help keep the turnstiles flipping for the next several weeks until 20th Century Fox’s “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” strikes May 19.

It also is good news for Warner Bros., which after a long stretch of disappointing box office returns has now come up with its third strong title in the past five months, starting with “You’ve Got Mail” in December, followed by the mob comedy “Analyze This” (also made in partnership with Village Roadshow), which held well in its fifth weekend with only a 27% drop in business at $6.3 million on 2,335 screens, bringing its total to nearly $78.5 million. “Analyze” should finish up close to $100 million. “Mail” also topped the century mark, as should “Matrix.”

Tied with “Analyze” for fourth place is last week’s box-office champ, “Forces of Nature.” The DreamWorks romantic comedy is also estimating $6.3 million in 2,278 theaters, bringing its three-weekend total to nearly $37 million.

But Universal Pictures’ Ron Howard comedy “EDtv” took a cold plunge to sixth place in its second weekend, falling approximately 45% to a weak $4.6 million in 2,630 theaters for a 10-day total of about $15.5 million. “EDtv” will now mark time until Universal replaces it with “Life,” starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, on April 16.

Disney’s release of “Doug’s First Movie” is taking advantage of parents in search of activities for their children during the spring holidays. Business was down from “Doug’s” first weekend (about 31%) to about $3.1 million on 2,268 screens for about $9.3 million in 10 days, not bad for a movie that cost about half that to make.

Miramax Films’ “Shakespeare in Love” and “Life Is Beautiful” continued to reap the benefits of Oscar hoopla and the endless articles asking, “Did Miramax buy the Academy Awards?” “Shakespeare” is down slightly from last weekend to about $3.3 million in 1,735 theaters for a grand total of nearly $85 million to date. “Life Is Beautiful” also held fairly well, reaping an additional $2.8 million on only 1,130 screens.

“Life” has now grossed nearly $45 million and still has some mileage left. “The Mod Squad” fell to the bottom of the top 10 in only its second weekend, losing about 60% of its first weekend’s total for an estimated $2.4 million, and only $10 million or so to date.

Among the specialized films debuting this weekend, Robert Altman’s “Cookie’s Fortune” baked a delicious $188,600 for October Films on 10 screens in Los Angeles and New York, according to UPI.

The French entry, “The Dreamlife of Angels,” from Sony Pictures Classics got off to a dreamy start of $61,000 on six screens in New York and Los Angeles, boosted by strong reviews. Second weekend totals for Miramax’s ‘60s drama “A Walk on the Moon” were a reasonably good $180,000 on 30 screens for almost $300,000 in two weeks.