January 20, 2002
Dean Goodman
Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Out with fantasy, in with reality at the North American box office.

``Black Hawk Down,'' the grim depiction of an abortive U.S. military mission in Somalia, ended the four-week reign of the Hobbit epic ``The Lord of the Rings,'' according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.

The war movie, released in North America by Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures unit, grossed $29 million in its first three days of national release beginning Friday, after playing to packed houses in New York and Los Angeles the prior three weekends.

``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' (New Line Cinema) fell two places to No. 3 with $13 million, taking its 33-day total to $246 million. In between, the Cuba Gooding Jr. dog-sled comedy ``Snow Dogs'' (Walt Disney Pictures) opened at No. 2 with a surprisingly strong $17.5 million. Snow storms in the Northeast battered business, more than offsetting the benefit of Monday's Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The top 12 films grossed about $105 million for the three days, flat with last weekend and off 16 percent from the year-ago King holiday weekend, which fell one week earlier. New releases next Friday include the romance ``A Walk To Remember,'' starring pop singer Mandy Moore; the latest retelling of ``The Count of Monte Cristo,'' starring Jim Caviezel; ``The Mothman Prophecies,'' a thriller starring Richard Gere; and the comedy ``Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.'' Additionally, the Sean Penn drama ``I Am Sam'' goes into wide release after several weeks in limited release.

January is traditionally a quiet time for new releases as the studios focus more on their Oscar contenders. The latest awards show, the Golden Globes, takes place in Beverly Hills on Sunday night. Among movies in this weekend's top 10, ``The Lord of the Rings'' and ``A Beautiful Mind'' (No. 4) are competing for best motion picture drama, while ``Gosford Park'' (No. 9) is up for best motion picture musical or comedy.

``BLACK HAWK'' SETS WEEKEND RECORD

``Black Hawk Down'' sets a record for a Martin Luther King holiday film, beating last year's champ ``Save The last Dance'' ($23.4 million). Directed by Briton Ridley Scott (''Gladiator'') and named after the Black Hawk helicopters, the $91 million-budgeted movie recounts the true story of a bad day for the U.S. military when 18 soldiers were killed during a gunfight in Mogadishu in 1993. The ensemble cast includes Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Tom Sizemore.

``This is a picture that is not necessarily for everybody,'' said Tom Sherak, a partner at Revolution Studios, which produced the film for Columbia. ``But people want to see something that is meaningful and by a good director.''

The 143-minute film has pulled in $30.8 million to date. It is playing in 3,101 theaters, up from 16 last weekend when it ranked No. 23. Exit polling data showed that 45 percent of the audience for ``Black Hawk Down'' was female, a rather high figure given the film's content. This indicated that the film's human angle struck as much of a chord as its action, said Jeff Blake, Columbia's president of worldwide marketing and distribution. Additionally, 60 percent of the audience was aged under 30, while buoyant receipts from Canada showed that the film was more than just an exercise in American flag-waving, Blake said. The film also opened in Britain and some Asian territories, although results were not immediately available.

``HARRY'' REACHES $308 MILLION

``Snow Dogs'' was a natural destination for audiences seeking family entertainment, and its opening was the fourth-best for any January. The fish-out-of-water tale stars Gooding as a Miami dentist who inherits a pack of Alaska huskies. It was budgeted at $31 million.

Rounding out the top five, ``A Beautiful Mind'' (Universal) and ``Orange County'' (Paramount) each fell two places with $13 million and $11 million, respectively. ``Mind,'' starring Globe nominee Russell Crowe as a mad genius, has pulled in $73.9 million to date; ``Orange County,'' a college comedy starring Jack Black and Colin Hanks, has squeezed out $26.9 million after 10 days.

The worldwide box office phenomenon ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' (Warner Bros.) fell out of the top 10 in its 10th week of release, slipping two places to No. 12 with $2.5 million. With a North American tally of $308 million, it ranks No. 9 on the all-time list and should end up with about $320 million, said Dan Fellman, the distribution president at the AOL Time Warner Inc. -owned studio. Internationally, where the film is known in most territories as ``Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,'' the film's total is $560 million.

New Line Cinema is also a unit of AOL Time Warner. Walt Disney Pictures is a unit of Walt Disney Co. . Universal Pictures is a unit of Vivendi Universal. . Paramount Pictures is a unit of Viacom Inc.