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Signs Reaps Crop Of Gold All Signs point to big box office. Director M. Night Shyamalan's crop circle thriller, starring Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix as brothers on the lookout for evil E.T.s, debuted with an out-of-this-world $60.1 million, according to final studio figures released Monday. The tally represents the biggest opening ever for a Gibson or Shyamalan movie and is the second largest August debut in Hollywood history (behind the $67.4 million for New Line's Rush Hour 2 last year). The PG-13 Buena Vista flick is also the fourth biggest opening weekend of the year. The combined pull of major star Gibson and The Sixth Sense director Shyamalan, also gives the profit-challenged studio its first number-one film for the studio since last November's 'toon Monsters, Inc. With 43 percent of the movie-going audience opting to see Signs this weekend, Austin Powers in Goldmember slipped to second, dropping off 57 percent from its opening weekend. However, its second-place haul of $31.2 million was groovy enough to bring Mike Myers' spy spoof to $141.7 million in just two weeks, making it the 11th film this year to pass the coveted $100 million mark. (...) Signs cropped an excellent $18,418 average at 3,264 theaters. The PG-13-rated Goldmember averaged $8,613. (...) Overall, the top 12 films grossed about $142 million, up 7 percent from last weekend, but down 13 percent from this time last year. Here's the final rundown of the weekend's top 10 films, as compiled by Exhibitor Relations: 1. Signs, $60.1 million |