'Hollow Man' edges Eastwood film at box office

LOS ANGELES -- "Hollow Man," the latest retelling of the invisible man story, kept a loose grip on the top spot at the box office, edging Clint Eastwood's astronaut tale "Space Cowboys."

"Hollow Man," which stars Kevin Bacon as a scientist who goes mad after discovering the secret of invisibility, took in $13.05 million. "Space Cowboys," starring Eastwood, Tommy Jones, James Garner and Donald Sutherland, was close behind with $13.02 million.

It was an unusual weekend, with no film dominating and the top seven movies bunched within a few million dollars.

Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman's "The Replacements," a comedy about misfit players during a football strike, opened in third place with $11.04 million. "Autumn in New York," the Richard Gere-Winona Ryder tearjerker, debuted at No. 4 with $11.0 million.

Two holdovers were Nos. 5 and 6, "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" with $10.2 million and "What Lies Beneath" with $9.7 million. The supernatural tale "Bless the Child," starring Kim Basinger and Jimmy Smits, premiered at No. 7 with $9.4 million.

August typically is a slow month for Hollywood. With summer waning, films cluster together and post smaller grosses as "blockbuster fatigue sets in," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks movie-ticket sales.

"This weekend was sort of a horse race. A slow horse race, but still a horse race," Dergarabedian said. "Unless you have films like 'Sixth Sense' from last August that grab the national consciousness, it's tough to have any record-breaking grosses."

Overall, the top 12 films grossed $97.7 million, down 13.7 percent from last year and continuing a summer slump behind 1999's record summer revenues of $3 billion.

"Autumn in New York" posted the best per-theater average among wide-release films at $5,100 in 2,255 cinemas. That compared to $4,621 in 2,835 theaters for "Space Cowboys" and $4,432 in 2,956 cinemas for "Hollow Man."