Parents beat the Witch

Oct 29, 2000 by Ian Evans

You would think that Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 would reign at the box office the weekend before Halloween. Think again.

For the fourth week in a row, the Ben Stiller/[textileRef:7723262666743d36c5c4e8:linkStartMarker:“Robert De Niro”:/cr/robertdeniro] comedy Meet the Parents came out on top in box office estimates released Sunday. Its estimated $15.1 million take put the $13.1 million box office of the Blair Witch sequel in second place. That figure is at the low end of what the pundits predicted. They thought the horror sequel would be number one with close to $25 million, but with reviews ranking close to the pit of Battlefield Earth, that was just a dream. The consensus seems to be that, love it or leave it, the original Blair Witch was at least that — original. The sequel seems to follow the usual sex and gore of the factory-made horror flick.

And speaking of Battlefield Earth, how did John Travolta fare in Lucky Numbers, his first outing since his stinker of a sci-fi? Estimates for that film, which co-stars Lisa Kudrow, puts it around number seven with roughly $4.6 million.