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15 YEARS AGO

January 4, 2002
December’s releases dominated the box office this weekend, as Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring held #1 with $23 million and A Beautiful Mind expanded into second place with $16.5 million.  The only new wide release was Imposter a sci-fi thriller based on a Philip K. Dick story starring Gary Sinise, which opened way down at #13 with $3 million from 1,870 theaters.

January 11, 2002
The only new wide release this weekend was the southern California teen comedy Orange County, from writer Mike White and director Jake Kasdan, starring Colin Hanks and Jack Black.  Orange County came in at #3 behind Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and A Beautiful Mind, with $15 million from 2,317 theaters. Opening at just 21 theaters was Brotherhood of the Wolf. Samuel Le Bihan and Marc Dacascos star along with Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci in this thriller set in 18th century France about a seemingly supernatural beast terrorizing the country.  Though it expanded to little more than 400 theaters and only grossed $11.2 million, this was an impressive result for a French-language film.  Excellent cinematography and Dacascos’s martial arts moves make this film a cut above others in the historical action genre.

January 18, 2002
While Oscar-candidate Black Hawk Down expanded into wide release and handily took the #1 box office spot with $28.6 million ($33.6 million over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend), the only new opener in wide release was Cuba Gooding Jr.’s family-friendly comedy Snow Dogs, which took the #2 spot with $17.8 million ($23.7 million four-day) from 2,302 theaters.  Snow Dogs went on to earn a total of $81.1 million, surpassing the $77 million that Free Willy grossed in 1993, and was later only barely surpassed by Eight Below in 2006.  As of 2017, Snow Dogs is still the best performing film with Cuba Gooding Jr. as lead actor (Jerry Maguire took in $153 million and gave him his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor).

January 25, 2002
A group of moderate performers opened this weekend:  Mandy Moore’s romance A Walk to Remember opened at #3 behind Black Hawk Down and Snow Dogs, with $12.1 million from 2,411 theaters.  This was the second film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, slightly underperforming 1999’s Message in a Bottle.  Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce starred in the swashbuckling adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo at #5 with $11.3 million.  Close behind was Richard Gere’s supernatural thriller The Mothman Prophecies at #6 with $11.2 million.  Rounding out the new openers was writer/director Steve Oedekerk’s spoof Kung Pow! Enter the Fist at #9 with $7 million.

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