August 8, 200422 yr Cruise Suffers 'Collateral' Damage at Box Office Sunday August 08 2:00 PM ET By Dean Goodman Crime may not pay for Tom Cruise. The box office superhero's first outing as a villain, in director Michael Mann's thriller "Collateral," made off with a middling $24.4 million during its first three days at the North American box office, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday. The opening is in the same range as Cruise's previous R-rated efforts like last December's "The Last Samurai" ($24.3 million) and 2001's "Vanilla Sky" ($25 million). But it represents the second-smallest No. 1 debut this summer. The smallest was the anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which earned $23.9 million on many fewer screens. Last weekend's champion, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's suspense film "The Village," fell to No. 2 with $16.6 million, as bad word-of-mouth saw the film lose a hefty two-thirds of its audience from last weekend. It was followed by the Matt Damon spy thriller "The Bourne Supremacy" with $14.1 million in its third weekend, the Denzel Washington conspiracy drama "The Manchurian Cadidate" with $10.8 million in its second weekend, and the Brittany Murphy romantic comedy "Little Black Book," which opened with a disappointing $7.0 million. Sunday Morning Shoot Out This Week's Guest: Laura Dern Watch this week's entire episode online! click to watch now at Yahoo! Movies Sunday Morning Shoot Out Overall business was down sharply, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The top 12 films earned about $97.7 million, the least since the first weekend of May, when the sum was $94 million. TOM IN TAXI "Collateral," which cost about $65 million to make, was released by privately held studio DreamWorks SKG, where executives said they had hoped to open above the $20 million mark suggested by pre-release surveys. Cruise plays an assassin who commandeers a taxi, driven by Jamie Foxx, so that he can knock off a series of targets across Los Angeles in one night. It's a far cry from the lovable roles he played in films like "Top Gun" and "Jerry Maguire." "Once the movie starts, you really don't think about Tom playing a different role," said Jim Tharp, head of domestic theatrical distribution at DreamWorks. "You just sit on the edge of your seat and enjoy the ride." Exit surveys indicated the audience skewed older, with 60 percent over 25 years. "Collateral" does mark a personal best for director Mann, whose previous record was the $14.7 million bow for "Ali" in 2001. The 67 percent drop by Walt Disney Co.'s "The Village" is the steepest second-weekend slide by a box office champ this summer. Even the early-summer dud "Van Helsing" fell only 60 percent in its second round. After two weekends, "The Village" has earned $85.7 million. At the same time in its cycle, Shyamalan's previous film, 2002's "Signs," was at $118 million after a 51 percent drop. "The Bourne Supremacy" has earned $124.3 million after three weekends. It was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co.-controlled NBC Universal. "The Manchurian Candidate," from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, has earned $38.5 million after two weekends. "Little Black Book," a $35 million project in which Murphy plays a young woman who raids her boyfriend's Palm Pilot to explore his romantic past, was released by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp. A studio official said he had hoped the film would open closer to $11 million, where Murphy's "Uptown Girls" opened last August. In the limited-release world, the maritime thriller "Open Water" opened strongly with $1.0 million from 47 theaters. The film, inspired by a true story, revolves around two divers left to fend for themselves in shark-infested waters after being accidentally left behind by their boat. It was released by Lions Gate Films, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. 1 Collateral- $24,400,000 2 The Village- $16,583,000 3 The Bourne Supremacy- $14,100,000 4 The Manchurian Candidate- $10,800,000 5 Little Black Book- $7,000,000 6 I, Robot -$6,300,000 7 Spider-Man 2-$5,500,000 8 Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle-$3,200,000 9 A Cinderella Story- $3,045,000 10 Catwoman- $2,905,000 Thought Collateral would open up a little better with around 30 million. Hope to see it next week.
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