Box Office: 'Training Day' on Top

Oct. 8, 2001 -- After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, movieland pundits from coast to coast were predicting audiences to favor comedies over more serious fare, but for the second weekend in a row, a violent, R-rated movie scored a decisive box-office win over a well-reviewed lightweight comedy.

The downbeat police drama Training Day — featuring Denzel Washington as a crooked officer attempting to persuade a rookie (Ethan Hawke) to join him on the dark side — emerged as America's No. 1 movie with a gross of $24.2 million, giving Warner Bros. a much-needed hit in the process.

The romantic comedy Serendipity, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, came in a distant second. Movie attendance was at its highest level in nearly two months, as the $86.9 million pulled in by the top 12 movies was the highest such figure in seven weeks.

Rising above lousy reviews, Michael Douglas' alleged thriller Don't Say a Word, last weekend's No. 1 movie, managed to hang in there and come in third. The weekend's other new wide releases, the twentysomething suspense tale Joy Ride and the Disney middle-school comedy Max Keeble's Big Move, were minor disappointments for their studios, placing fifth and sixth, respectively.

Three wide releases enter the fray next week — the Bruce Willis/Billy Bob Thornton caper comedy Bandits; Corky Romano, the first solo star vehicle for Saturday Night Live star Chris Kattan; and the Chinese-language kung-fu extravaganza Iron Monkey. Bandits seems likely to be the only one with potential to make a real impact, so next week's chart could look awfully familiar — but you never know.

Andrew Johnston is a film critic and associate editor at US WEEKLY magazine.