Rush Hour 2 speeds past competition

Arthur J Pais

The wages of sin proved to be too meagre for Ashok Amritraj and co-producers MGM last weekend in North America.

Original Sin -- a steamy suspense flick starring Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie was only the sixth highest grossing film of the week.

With a three-day gross $6.4 miilion, the widely panned Original Sin, which has already had a disappointing run in Germany and France, could end its run in North America with about $25 million.

Unless it plays well in rest of Europe, Asia and South America, it could be another loser for MGM including What is The Worst That Could Happen, another Amritraj film.

Part of the disappointing opening for Original Sin can be attributed to the fierce competition last weekend.

Most of the audiences who responded to various pre-release polls had indicated that Rush Hour 2 would be their first choice.

The comic sequel to Rush Hour, released three years ago, had a weekend opening that went far beyond the estimates of rival studios and its producers, New Line, a division of Warner.

Laughing all the way to the bank, and firmly indicating there would be another sequel, Rush Hour 2 sped past the competition with about $ 66.8 million. Costing $ 90 million (Chris Tucker gets $ 20 million and Jackie Chan $ 15 million), Rush Hour 2, is expected to gross at least $ 200 million in America and be one of the highest grossing comedies of all times.

``Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan have an incredible magic together that you can't duplicate,'' said producer, Arthur Sarkissian. ``People cheer, they laugh, they're having an incredibly good time.''

While last weekend's Planet Of The Apes had some more monkey tricks left in its bag, it slipped to No 2 with $ 28.5 million, ahead of new family comedy The Princess Diaries with a stronger-than-expected $ 23.2 million opening.

The general consensus was Diaries would open with about $ 15 million but the engaging film, with top notch performances by Julie Andrews and newcomer Anne Hathway, wooed a strong number of women. Made for about $35 million, it could be the sleeper hit of the season, with some experts expecting it to top $100 million.

Diaries, a Walt Disney Pictures comedy, presents Anne Hathaway as a high-schooler groomed to rule a kingdom and Julie Andrews, as her regal grandmother.

Jurassic Park III, fell two places to the fourth spot with $ 12.1 million in its third weekend. The 14-day total for the dinosaur thriller stands at $ 146.8 million, with an $ 190 million as a doable final gross.

Meanwhile, thousands of theaters are showing the trailer of Bandits a $ 90 million comedy Amritraj and MGM co-produced. The film features Bruce Willis as an inept bank robber.

Amritraj has to wait for a few more weeks to see if he is lucky this time.