Box Office Column

Pleasantville and Apt Pupil are on surprisingly few screens. I figured they'd both get around 2,000+ and 1,800 respectively. Though I think two different reasons are behind each surprise. New Line wants a release they can build on, because they think they have something special with Pleasantville. Whereas, Sony realizes that they have a stinker with the long delayed Apt Pupil, and they don't want anyone to notice. 1,400 screens or less for a non-niche movie is generally regarded as a dumping.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. trots out what looks like the sequel to Universal Soldier, just plain Soldier, on a ridiculous amount of screens. Clint Eastwood wannabe Kurt Russell, who has inexplicably helped open a number of movies lately, is about the only thing going for this critic proof trash heap. It might have been almost worth seeing had they brought on Jean-Claude Van Damme to die in the first 15 minutes, like they did with Steven Seagal in Executive Decision.