'Men in Black II' Sets July 4 Record

By Stephen M. Silverman

Monday July 08, 2002 01:00 AM EDT

It was a very green, record-breaking weekend for Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and their "Men in Black II." The sequel's $54.1 million take set a new high-water mark for a Fourth of July weekend, topping the $51.1 million the original "Men in Black" took in during that same weekend in 1997. By factoring in admission-price increases, notes the Associated Press, "MIB II" actually sold fewer tickets than the original, however. Still, given his past successful Fourth of July weekend grosses -- "Independence Day" in 1996 ($85 million) and "MIB" -- there's no questioning that Smith, 33, "owns" the weekend, industry experts told The New York Times. Overall, most movies in the marketplace did pretty well this past weekend, though "The Powerpuff Girls Movie," based on the animated TV series about the adolescent superheroines, opened to disappointing business. Not enough weird aliens, apparently. The Top 10 movies, according to movie-studio estimates for the Friday through Sunday weekend, are as follows:

1. "Men in Black II," $54.1 million
2. "Mr. Deeds," $18.8 million
3. "Like Mike," $13.1 million
4. "Lilo & Stitch," $12.7 million
5. "Minority Report," $12.4 million
6. "The Bourne Identity," $9.1 million
7. "Scooby-Doo," $7 million
8. "The Sum of All Fears," $3.8 million
9. "The Powerpuff Girls Movie," $3.6 million
10. "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," $2.9 million