With its cast of millions of underground critters, DreamWorks' Antz narrowly beat the underworld romance What Dreams May Come for North American weekend box office honors, according to studio estimates.
Antz, a computer-animated comedy featuring six-legged insects and the voices of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone and Sylvester Stallone, opened to about US$16.8 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period.
The three-day total set a new record for an October opening, beating the old level of $16.7 million set by Stargate in 1994. The figure was also ahead of internal projections, which had estimated a sum between $12 million and $15 million, said Jim Tharp, president of domestic distribution at DreamWorks.
Tharp said the audience was evenly split between family and non-family, an unusually high percentage for adults in the animated film category.
"There's a lot of humor aimed at adults," he said, citing a scene where the lovelorn ant, Z, voiced by Allen, visits a psychiatrist. The film begins its international roll out on 29 October in Australia, New Zealand, Ecuador and Thailand, Tharp said.
What Dreams May Come, a PolyGram release starring Academy Award-winners Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr., earned about $16.1 million. After two weeks at No. 1., Jackie Chan's Rush Hour slipped to third with $15.0 million, bringing the New Line Cinema cop caper's total to $84.6 million. The box office figures were released Sunday by Exhibitor Relations, which collects the studios' estimates.
Copyright© 1998 Reuters Limited.
