The ultra-competitive summer box office really got going this weekend, with the introduction of Disney's animated Tarzan and the John Travolta-powered The General's Daughter into a market already crowded by Mike Myers' second Austin Powers film, and of course, the first Star Wars prequel.
As he's proven for decades, Tarzan owns the jungle. Early box-office estimates for the weekend ending June 20 show the vine swinger producing Disney's best opening for an animated feature since 1994's The Lion King.
Tarzan's $34.1 million take was good for first place, in fact, just out-swingin' last weekend's champ, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me--which dropped off 42 percent from its incredible performance a week ago, but still took in $31.9 million and grooved past the $100 million mark.
Rather than wilt under the shadow of these two mega-producers--as some feared it would--General's Daughter did okay. It's $22.3 million purse meant three films finished this huge weekend earning more than $20 million. Overall, the entire box office was up 21 percent from a year ago.
Phantom Menace enjoyed this prosperity. Sure, it continues to drop off a bit--it lost 31 percent of its record-breaking business in its fifth weekend--but it still gained an impressive $17.8 million, finishing in fourth place.
That brings Episode I's total to an estimated $327 million, meaning it should catch Forrest Gump ($330 million) for fifth place on the all-time North American grosser list sometime this week.
As for the rest of the Top 10, the Julia Roberts-Hugh Grant romantic comedy, Notting Hill, stayed strong at No. 5 ($7 million); fellow incumbents Instinct, The Mummy, The Matrix, Entrapment and Tea with Mussolini continued to hang around, as well.
Here are the weekend's Top 10 flicks, according to estimates from Exhibitor Relations.
1. Tarzan, $34.1 million
2. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, $31.9 million
3. The General's Daughter, $22.3 million
4. The Phantom Menace, $17.8 million
5. Notting Hill, $7 million
6. Instinct, $3.1 million
7. The Mummy, $3 million
8. The Matrix, $1.3 million
9. Entrapment, $1.2 million
10. Tea with Mussolini $635,000