..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

"Bad" is Good and Good is Bad It was a sort of shock to the system that wasn't about to upset industry honchos. Sony's Bad Boys II debuted to an estimated $47.2 million - in a comparable league to last week's Pirates of the Caribbean and boosted weekend revenues considerably from 2002. There was also good news for Universal's bow of Johnny English while New Line's How to Deal faltered in the crowded marketplace. Whoever said you can't have too much of a bad thing, obviously was cognizant of the overblown, indulgent Bad Boys sequel which ramped up the volume and mayhem of its modest precursor. Of course, its creative bad boys had yet to prove their collective box office muscle back in 1995 and the new film will most certainly top the original's $67 million domestic gross in its first week of release. The boffo opening of BB II cements (like it needed it) producer Jerry Bruckheimer's status as the man with the Midas touch. He may not be the first producer to have two consecutive #1 pictures in theaters but he's most certainly the only one to be able to claim successive movies bowing at more than $45 million, even if $50 million seems to be the vaunted goal this summer. His Pirates ranked second and - unlike most summer blockbusters - only slipped by 28%. The flip side was repped by How to Deal starring Mandy Moore, the squeaky clean singing favorite of young girls. Its $6 million weekend placed it seventh in the lineup. Its core audience was out in force opening day but Saturday business plunged 33%, an unusually steep erosion for any new film. Bad Boys II, by comparison, was down 4% Saturday from its opening day box office. While no Austin Powers, Rowan Atkinson's Johnny English arrived with close to $9 million and has Universal pondering whether the film - one of the few comedies in release - might be more commercially resilient than most of the seasonal offerings. The movie has already collected almost $120 million internationally, so the pressure is off domestically but every dollar in excess of $30 million would be a feather in the cap of the studios marketing, publicity and distribution departments. Overall weekend business should climb to about $150 million for a modest 3% bump from the prior frame. However, its 25% bump from 2002 has distributors and exhibitors upbeat that summer biz might be within 2% to 3% of last year's record. A year ago, the second weekend of The Road to Perdition edged out the box of Stuart Little 2 with the films respectively grossing $15.4 million and $15.1 million and K-19 bowing to a disappointing $12.8 million. The frame was also active with specialized premieres with the most impressive showing coming from Miramax's Brit acquisition Dirty Pretty Things scoring about $100,000 from five theaters. Fox Searchlight's winning streak seized up with the Australian musical comedy Garage Days barely registering on a $20,000 gross from 23 locations and Sony Rep's The Sea is Watching, based on a script by Akira Kurosawa, was disappointing with $11,500 from five initial venues. Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo became the first 2003 release to gross more than $300 million on Saturday. Friday sneaks of the company's upcoming Freaky Friday quelled the animated film's modest drops to less than 20%. Summer has yet to produce a hit from the American indie sector save for the consistent niche appeal of non-fiction pics Spellbound and Capturing the Friedmans. However, two English-language productions from abroad that are working are Whale Rider and Swimming Pool. In its largest expansion yet, the highly original Kiwi Whale added 170 theaters and again registered with $1 million plus weekend and a $7.6 million cume in its seventh weekend. The upcoming challenge will be to continue adding playdates and maintaining a profile for the film that, if all goes perfectly, could result in an ultimate tally close to $20 million. The French Swimming Pool virtually doubled to 137 engagements and generated close to $900,000. It could have a significant second wave with a campaign in the vein of the "don't tell the ending" pitch employed by The Crying Game and The Sixth Sense. One can already see numerous print pieces struggling to avoid spoilers in their coverage of the movie. Following on the heels of Daddy Day Care, both The Italian Job and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle are now at a box office level that virtually demands their respective studios spend and push to secure a $100 million domestic gross. One producer, who requested anonymity, said he learned his lesson when he prodded a distributor to make the extra goose. "I was naive," he says in retrospect. "The weekly costs after it reached $90 million were greater than what the film was grossing. Then, after we finally hit $100 million, there were the congratulatory ads in the trades and every dime was charged back to the production. I would have seen more money had we just quit at $90 million." - by Leonard Klady