Super-Duper "Scooby-Doo"

Overcoming all the doo-doo thrown at it by critics who claimed the flick was a dog, the combo live-action/CGI adaptation of the mystery-busting, munchie-loving Great Dane and his goofy human sidekicks scooped up a super-duper $54.2 million at the box-office, the second-best June debut ever.

The Mystery Machine crew's take was more than twice as much as Matt Damon & Co. in the traditional spy thriller The Bourne Identity, which registered a solid second with $27.1 million.

Little more than a whisper in third was Nicolas Cage's reality-based war story Windtalkers, which whiffed with just $14.5 million.

The one-two-three combination newcomers knocked that other secret-agent thriller The Sum of All Fears, starring Damon buddy Ben Affleck, down to fourth place after two weeks on top.

Audiences had no trouble finding out where Scooby-Doo was--at 3,447 theaters! Initial estimates Sunday had the film at $56.4 million for the weekend, which would have bested the $54.9 million record notched by Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999. However, when the final figures were tallied and released Monday, Scooby was adjusted down to $54.2 million and into second place in the record books.

Additionally, Scooby-Doo scored the best opening of the year, only tailing the really super-duper live-action cartoon Spider-Man ($114.5 million) and the Star Wars prequel Attack of the Clones ($80 million.)

Starring Linda Cardellini as the clued-up bespectacled Velma, Matthew Lillard as the cowardly Shaggy, Sarah Michelle Gellar as purple-frocked cutie Daphne, Freddie Prinze Jr. as the blond egomaniac Fred and a CGI pooch as the big mutt Scooby, the PG-rated Warners release averaged $15,711 per screen. That means more than one-third of all weekend moviegoers saw Scooby-Doo.

In fewer theaters The Bourne Identity, a PG-13-rated Universal release starring Damon as an amnesiac assassin in the adaptation of Robert Ludlum's spy novel, averaged $10,280 at 2,638 sites.

That made it about twice as successful as Windtalkers, the Word War II tale with Cage as a battle-scarred marine assigned to shadow, protect and, if necessary, kill one of the Native Americans corralled as secret-code carriers. The R-rated MGM/UA release could only puff up a mere $5,010 per screen at 2,898 sites.

Slipping down the top 10 list, but still edging towards its $400 million domestic gross goal, was Spider-Man, netting another $7.5 million in its seventh week to bring its current total gross to $382.5 million.

In very limited release, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys opened with $55,000 at nine theaters. The film, which is about some troublesome kids at a Catholic school, not troublesome priests, stars Jodie Foster, Jena Malone and Kieran Culkin (yes, that's Macaulay's brother).

Meanwhile, the director's cut (longer, of course) of the 1989 Oscar-winning Italian movie Cinema Paradiso attracted about $26,000 at just three sites.

Overall, the impact of the three new wide releases pushed the combined top 12 gross up more than 50 percent over last weekend, and, at $156 million, it was also 21 percent higher than this time last year.

The top 10 weekend movies, as tabulated by Exhibitor Relations from final studio figures:

1. Scooby-Doo, $54.2 million
2. The Bourne Identity, $27.1 million
3. Windtalkers, $14.5 million
4. The Sum of All Fears, $13.5 million
5. Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones, $9.4 million
6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, $8.9 million
7. Spider-Man, $7.5 million
8. Bad Company, $5.9 million
9. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, $5.2 million
10. Undercover Brother, $4.4 million

(Originally published 6/16/02 at 12:15 p.m. PT)