LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The superstar pairing of Cruise and Spielberg humbled at the North American box office by a cartoon starring a Hawaiian girl and an alien?In a declaration disputed by virtually everyone else in Hollywood, director Steven Spielberg’s “”Minority Report,”” a sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise, claimed a slim victory on Sunday over Walt Disney Co.’s animated “”Lilo & Stitch.””
“”Minority Report”” grossed an estimated $36.9 million in its first three days beginning on Friday, according to its domestic distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. . The film cost $102 million to make.Disney said “”Lilo & Stitch”” made $35.8 million in its first three days, a figure that exceeded most studios’ estimates for “”Minority Report.”” Indeed, Disney claimed victory and expected final figures released on Monday would bear it out. Officials at the studio were less than impressed with Fox’s claims.””We truly believe we were No. 1,”” said Disney distribution president Chuck Viane. “”We’re both public companies, and I’m confident the estimates will be corrected on Monday morning.””””I don’t blame them. I’d be upset too,”” responded Bruce Snyder, Fox’s president of distribution. He added the race was too close to call, and he was happy to call it a tie, especially since his own forecast had “”Lilo & Stitch”” just $100,000 behind “”Minority Report.””The bragging rights are important for both films: “”Minority Report”” marks the first project between two of the biggest names in Hollywood, while “”Lilo & Stitch”” marks a comeback for Disney’s vaunted traditional animation division after some underwhelming efforts in recent years. Media outlets widely report the estimates in Sunday broadcasts and in Monday newspapers. The final figures do not get as much coverage.’AN ORIGINAL MOVIE’Either way, the “”Minority Report”” opening seems a little underwhelming for Fox, and its privately held production partner DreamWorks, which is handling foreign distribution. After all, last weekend’s box-office champ, “”Scooby-Doo,”” stunned the industry with a $54 million opening.””This is an original movie,”” said Fox’s Snyder, referring to the slew of sequels and franchise projects released during the lucrative summer movie period. “”This is a movie that requires (viewers to ask), ‘What is it?””‘What it is is a futuristic drama in which Cruise plays a fugitive Washington cop who must prevent himself from committing a murder that has been forecast by sophisticated tracking devices that have reduced the U.S. capital’s murder rate to zero. It is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick.Snyder said the “”Minority Report”” opening was within expectations. Both Spielberg and Cruise are clawing back from disappointments with their last films, the former on “”A.I.”” and the latter in “”Vanilla Sky.””””Lilo & Stitch”” revolves around the exploits of the two misfit title characters — Lilo, an orphan girl in Hawaii, and Stitch, a mischievous blue alien. After watching its costs soar out of control on such recent cartoons as “”The Emperor’s New Groove”” and “”Tarzan,”” Disney reined in the budget for “”Lilo & Stitch”” to a relatively low $80 million.Viane said “”Lilo & Stitch”” was Disney’s second-best traditional animated opening after 1994’s “”The Lion King,”” which opened with $41 million en route to $312 million. The studio released two other cartoons that opened better, (“”Monsters, Inc.”” and “”Toy Story 2″”), but they were computer-animated efforts produced by Pixar Animation Studios Inc. .””SCOOBY-DOO”” REACHES $100 MILLIONElsewhere at the box office, the TV cartoon adaptation “”Scooby-Doo”” fell to No. 3 with $24.4 million, taking its 10-day total to $100.2 million, the first Warner Bros. Pictures film of 2002 to pass the century mark.Universal Pictures’ Matt Damon spy thriller “”The Bourne Identity”” which also opened last weekend, slipped two places to No. 4 with $14.8 million, for a 10-day haul of $54.1 million.Paramount Pictures’ nuclear thriller “”The Sum of All Fears”” dipped one place to No. 5 with $7.9 million. After 24 days, the Ben Affleck vehicle has pulled in $97.4 million.Warner Bros. is a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. ; Universal is a unit of Vivendi Universal SA ; Paramount is a unit of Viacom Inc. .The top 10 contained one other new release, the low-budget urban sports comedy “”Juwanna Mann,”” which opened at No. 7 with $6 million. Warner Bros. distributed the film on behalf of its producer, Morgan Creek.According to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, the top 12 films grossed $152 million, down 3 percent from last weekend, but up 12 percent from the year-ago period when “”The Fast and the Furious”” opened at No. 1 with $40 million.New releases next weekend include the cartoon “”Hey Arnold! The Movie”” and the Adam Sandler comedy “”Mr. Deeds.