Monsters, Inc. Scores Big Box-Office Bucks

The latest Disney animation spectacle absolutely spectacular in drawing crowds and generating revenue, according to industry analysts

The latest entry into the Disney Future Hall-of-Famers, Monsters, Inc., has struck a nerve in viewers, as well as at the box office, scaring up a whopping $63.5 million  in ticket sales in its first three days, according to studio estimates issued Nov. 4.

The tally, derived from 3,237 theaters across the United States and Canada since the film's Friday, Nov. 2, opening, ranked as the best cartoon opening of all time and as a company record for Disney, according to studio officials.

The new animated flick centers around a civilization of colorful critters whose power is supplied by the screams of frightened human children visited in the night by a Top Gun-like squadron of scaremeisters who bottle the squeals for future use.   The voice cast includes John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Jennifer Tilly, and Steve Buscemi.

Monsters, Inc. ranked easily as the number-one hit on its opening weekend, with the Jet Li martial arts film, The One (Columbia), running a distant second at about $20 million gross.  In third spot: Domestic Disturbance (Paramount), a thriller starring John Travolta, raking in $14.5 million.  The previous weekend's number-one box-office hit, K-Pax (Universal), a drama starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, slipped to the number-four slot with $10.7 million.

Overall, domestic theatrical activity rebounded during the weekend with the introduction of three well-received releases, 27% higher than the previous weekend, which was weakened by the terrorist attack-related withdrawal of two potentially productive pictures.  They were Buena Vista's Big Trouble, Warner Bros' Training Day, and Fox's disappointing Mariah Carey vehicle, Glitter, which failed to shine, earning a meager $2.4 million during its first three days.

"These are trying and stressful times," according to Angelic Entertainment Chairman & CEO, Mark Maine.  "But what the experts have realized for many years is that people need to escape the realities of life during such times.  That’s the interesting thing about the movie biz.  When times are prosperous, people go to the movies.  When times are tough, people go to the movies, and not just to see comedies."

Maine went on to point out that war movies were extremely popular during WWII and that heroic movies in general always play well.  "It’s healing," he said, "because in the span of an hour-and-a-half we can experience the range of emotions and get a sense of resolve.   Horrible things happen in life and yet here are these people going through what I’m going through and surviving…no, not just surviving…but sometimes acting like heroes.  In America’s history we have seen disaster bring the very best out in people, and the fact that we can re-live it in a few minutes in a darkened theater gives us hope.  Consider Titanic and Pear Harbor as examples, even though audiences already knew the ending."

Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp.. Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc., while Universal Pictures is a unit of Vivendi Universal.

"One" Is, Indeed, for Star

For Chinese-born actor, Jet Li, The One is the biggest opener for a film
headlined by its star, which is a-okay with him!

The movie, The One, ranks as the biggest opener for a film headlined by actor Jet Li.   His previous record was $18 million for last year's Romeo Must Die.   The new film's audience was expanded by its PG-13 rating, whereas Li's previous films were R-rated.

A Paramount spokeswoman said that Domestic Disturbance opened within expectations, although sales were hurt by competition for parents from Monsters, Inc.

In the limited release arena, French romantic comedy hit Amelie opened in the United States, playing in two theaters in New York and one in Los Angeles.  Writer-director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's whimsical portrait of a waitress (Audrey Tautou) grossed a magnifique $140,000 from those three theaters.   It will expand to 250 screens by Nov. 16, said a spokesman for Disney-owned Miramax.

France has submitted "Amelie" as its contender for the foreign-language Oscar, and industry observers expect Miramax to campaign hard for other hardware.

Harry Potter Author Moved to Tears

The author expresses relief, pride in the job done turning her hit book
into an effective film vehicle

Seeing the film of her first Harry Potter book reduced author J.K. Rowling to tears.   She absolutely loved it.

"I am enormously relieved," the author said after seeing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for the first time at a private screening.

The author gave full credit to 12-year-old child actor Daniel Radcliffe who plays the bespectacled boy wizard in one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year.

"I think Dan nailed it, and I am really pleased, I just love his face.  He has such an endearing face," she said.

That was high praise, indeed, coming from the novelist who kept resisting pleas from Hollywood until she felt they had found the right director in Christopher Columbus, who had worldwide hits with Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire.  Columbus had to promise two things to get her to acquiesce, according to the author.  "That he would remain as faithful to the book as he possibly could within the constraints of film and that he would have an all-British cast.

The director kept both promises, and so I was a happy woman."

The novelist, a single mother who started writing the novels in an Edinburgh cafe after dropping her daughter off at school, has become a global literary phenomenon.  The four books in the series so far have sold more than 100 million copies in 46 languages.

Iranian Film Director Facing Death

For her boldness in portraying the plight of an Iranian woman on film, one woman now stands before Iran's revolutionary council, and the outcome could cost her her life

It's difficult to imagine more contrasting ends of the movie spectrum than the Hollywood elite and Iran's persecuted directors, but the might of the former is being used for the protection of the latter in what could be a test case for Iranian artistic freedom.  Hundreds of members of the Hollywood film community, from Sean Penn and Steven Soderbergh, to Ang Lee, Spike Lee and Mike Leigh, have signed a petition expressing their solidarity with Tahmineh Milani, an Iranian director currently threatened with execution over her film, The Hidden Half.

Milani is one of Iran's best-known directors, thanks largely to her consistent focus on the plight of Iranian women.  With films such as Two Women and The Legend of a Sigh, she has played a part in establishing her country's cinematic reputation.  However, she has taken greater risks than her better-known contemporaries, rarely cloaking her messages in allegorical terms, and frequently speaking about her work in public.

A little controversy at home has helped Iranian films elsewhere, but The Hidden Half has proved to be a risk too far.  The film focuses on a dutiful wife who reveals her turbulent political past to her husband, a judge who is deciding the fate of a similar woman facing execution.  The wife's naive involvement, as a student, with a left-wing group opposing the Shah puts her on the wrong side of the fence after the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Film-makers in Iran, such as Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, have also supported Milani, and the International Film Critics Society is preparing another petition, with signatories from 52 countries. "We appreciate that people are concerned about us," says Mohammad Nikbin.  "I hope that the charges will be dropped and Tahmineh will be able to make films again.  We are optimistic."

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