Keanu A-Z News Reports
Sunday, April 18, 1999
The Good "Life"
[E! Online 18/04/1999]
Life is looking up for a couple of comics.
The Eddie Murphy-Martin Lawrence jail-bird comedy flew to No. 1 at the weekend box office, earning an estimated $20.7 million and breaking the winning streak of Keanu Reeves' The Matrix.
Murphy's roller-coaster career, which last year included the hit Doctor Dolittle and the dud Holy Man, looks to be on another upswing with the successful debut of Life. The film reteams him with Lawrence, another performer whose career has been full of on-and-off-screen ups and downs.
The Matrix, meanwhile, earned another $18 million, good for second place, according to Exhibitor Relations Inc. In just three weeks of release, the trippy-looking cyber thriller has grossed $99.1 million. It should be the first movie of 1999 to blast past $100 million.
In third place was Drew Barrymore's romantic comedy Never Been Kissed. It pulled in an estimated $8.7 million. In fourth: the Robert De Niro-Billy Crystal comedy, Analyze This, with another $4 million.
Oscar-winner Shakespeare in Love was back in the Top 10 in ninth place, just ahead of Robert Altman's latest, Cookie's Fortune.
Here's a complete look at the Top 10, according to estimates from Exhibitor Relations:
1. Life, $20.7 million
2. The Matrix, $18.1 million
3. Never Been Kissed, $8.7 million
4. Analyze This, $4 million
5. 10 Things I Hate About You, $3.7 million
6. The Out-of-Towners, $3.2 million
7. Go, $3 million
8. Forces of Nature, $2.6 million
9. Shakespeare in Love, $1.9 million
10. Cookie's Fortune, $1.8 million
Sunday, April 11, 1999
"The Matrix" Maintains
[E! Online 11/04/1999]
Virtual reality prevailed.
Keanu Reeves' The Matrix blew away the competition at the weekend box office, earning an estimated $22.2 million, for its second
straight No. 1 finish.
In just over two weeks of release, the trippy cyber thriller has grossed a huge $72.9 million, according to estimates from Industry watchdog Exhibitor Relations Co.
Here's a complete look at the weekend's Top 10, according to estimates from Exhibitor Relations:
1. The Matrix, $22.2 million
2. Never Been Kissed, $11.7 million
3. The Out-of-Towners, $5.3 million
4. 10 Things I Hate About You, $5.2 million
5. Analyze This, $5.1 million
6. Go, $4.7 million
7. Forces of Nature, $3.7 million
8. Twin Dragons, $2.8 million
9. Doug's 1st Movie, $2.3 million
10. Foolish, $2.2 million
Tuesday, April 06, 1999
Reeves regains Speedy form
[Toronto Sun 06/04/1999]
The Matrix set box-office records over the weekend. This is good news for Keanu Reeves, who has not fared well on the big screen since Speed.
The suggestion that Reeves may be box-office gold again for the first time since 1994 draws this comment about the actor from a Warner Bros. executive, quoted in USA Today: "We like him."
Profound! Somebody stayed up all night putting that quote together.
Further on The Matrix and its creators: "We tried to get our name taken off that film." Andy and Larry Wachowski finally clear up the mystery of how the same guys who made Bound and The Matrix could possibly have been behind the screenplay for The Assassins, that high-hilarity turkey that featured Antonio Banderas and Sylvester Stallone typing on computers and shooting people, mostly each other.
