Paramount's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider buried the competition with a strong $48.2 million opening weekend. In spite of largely negative reviews, Tomb Raider, which stars Angelina Jolie, provided Paramount with its second-best opening weekend in history. Like Charlie's Angels, another critically panned film in which chicks kick some serious booty, Tomb Raider, which was backed up by a massive publicity campaign (see 'Tomb Raider Knee-Deep in Promotions') demonstrated some serious immunity to critical brickbats. Paramount, which has Ms. Jolie signed up for two more Tomb Raider films, is obviously thinking 'franchise.' With Tomb Raider comics from Image, trading cards from Inkworks, toys from Playmates, and a bevy of knockout posters (see 'Tomb Raider Poster a Knockout'), Tomb Raider provides lots of opportunities for retailers to profit from the film's success.
Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire opened in second place with about $20.9 million, which is very similar to the opening totals for Hercules and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which bowed in pervious Junes. According to the movie tracking service Cinemascore, audiences gave Atlantis an 'A' rating, which indicates that the film should at least be able to match the $100 million-plus performances of Hercules and The Hunchback, in spite of the fact that Atlantis, with its PG rating and lack of musical numbers and animal sidekicks, represents a clear departure from the tried and true Disney formula. For retailers who want to exploit the success of Atlantis, one of the best bets is the Dark Horse Comics graphic novel adaptation, which contains an eight-page section featuring designs by artist Mike Mignola, whose comic works provided the primary stylistic influence on the film (see 'Atlantis Has A Comic Connection').
Led by Tomb Raider and Atlantis, the box office total surged to its largest non-holiday total of the year as the summer movie season moved into high gear. Shrek, came in third, continuing its monster run which should see the film pass $200 million by the middle of this week. In spite of its enormous box office and mass market success, Shrek is something of a lightweight when it comes to selling merchandise in pop culture stores (see 'Shrek Sales Slow in Specialty Stores').
