Date: 9th January 2001

Traffic Jolts Box Office


Steven Soderbergh's Traffic created a surprising traffic jam at the box office over the weekend as it earned more on a per-theater basis than any other film in general release. Traffic, released by USA Films, took in an average of $10,262 at each of 1,510 theaters for a total of $15.5 million, putting it in third place on the list of top performers. By contrast, the No. 2 film, Paramount's What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson, earned only $5,097 at each of 3,052 screens for a total of $15.6 million. The No. 1 film, Fox's Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks, had a per-screen average of $7,538 dollars at 2,948 locations for a total of $22.2 million. Reporting on the results, today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Times commented that the strong showing of Traffic "had Hollywood talking."

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Cast Away, 20th Century Fox, $22,220,725, ($141,702,072); 2. What Women Want, Paramount, $15,555,033, ($13,7897,386); 3. Traffic, USA, $15,517,549, ($16,041,218); 4. Miss Congeniality, Warner Bros., $13,021,316, ($65,376,566); 5. The Family Man, Universal, $9,121,855, ($56,252,235); 6. The Emperor's New Groove, Disney, $7,462,207, ($62,400,374); 7. Vertical Limit, Sony, $5,010,353, ($59,275,373); 8. Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, Dimension, $4,310,742, ($28,136,273); 9. Dude, Where's My Car?, 20th Century Fox, $3,832,533, ($41,385,958); 10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Sony Classics, $3,408,397, ($18,496,108).

Source: Studio Briefing