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March 24th new releases:
Inside Man / Stay Alive / Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
The heist thriller Inside Man became and remains the biggest hit of director Spike Lee’s career. Denzel Washington stars as a detective dealing with bank hold-up from which the robbers (led by Clive Owen, who had a critical hit in 2004 with Closer) seemingly get away without having stolen anything. Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer co-star. Inside Man opened at #1 with $28.9 million from 2,867 theaters and ended up with a total score of $88.5 million.

March 31st new releases:
Ice Age: The Meltdown / ATL / Slither / Basic Instinct 2 / Brick
Back in 2002 when Ice Age was released by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios, the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature category was only two years old. Ice Age was both included in the nominees and a box office hit, and its sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown built on that success. The CGI animal adventure, featuring voices from Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary, included humor to appeal to both kids and adult audiences like the Shrek and Pixar movies, but also demonstrated that you could have a blockbuster hit before the summer season (a tradition continued by the studio’s Rio franchise). Ice Age: The Meltdown opened at #1 with $68 million from 3,964 theaters, surpassing the previous March opening weekend record set by the first Ice Age’s $46.3 million. The sequel went on to gross $195 million in the U.S. and a total of $465 million worldwide. The next sequel made even more money worldwide in 2009 by shifting to a summer release date, and the fifth entry in the series, Ice Age: Collision Course, will hit theaters in July 2016.

15 years ago - March 2001

March 2nd new releases:
The Mexican / See Spot Run / Carman the Champion
The Mexican stars Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in this road movie about a guy trying to choose between his responsibilities to the mob (in obtaining an antique pistol from Mexico) and keeping his romantic relationship intact. The two actors were huge celebrities, but critics were not impressed with the chemistry between their characters. Instead, they highlighted the performance of James Gandolfini, playing a gay hitman who has some great dialogue with Roberts. The third season of The Sopranos debuted the same weekend as this movie was released. For Pitt, the box office performance of this movie was an improvement over the last five years, while for Roberts, it was a significant drop from her hit Erin Brockovich the year before. The Mexican opened at #1, taking down Hannibal in its fourth weekend, with $20.1 million from 2,951 theaters. It went on to earn $66 million in the U.S. and $81 million from foreign markets.

March 9th new releases:
15 Minutes / Get Over It / Blow Dry
This week’s trio didn’t make much of an impression, with the Robert De Niro / Ed Burns crime drama 15 Minutes coming in at #2 behind The Mexican, Kristen Dunst’s comedy Get Over It at #7, and the British comedy Blow Dry in limited release.

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