Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller: "Meet the Parents" an Early Success

In the midst of a movie-going season that has thus far fallen short of last year's numbers, Universal's "Meet the Parents," featuring Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro, has met with great success both at the box office and among critics. In "Meet the Parents," Stiller plays a jumpy future son-in-law to DeNiro, a father who takes protecting his daughter to comedic levels, at one point even strapping Stiller to a polygraph machine and asking questions about his level of sexual involvement with his daughter. The movie grossed $29.1 million last weekend, a record for an October opening. "Antz," the previous record holder, grossed $17 million in its 1998 opening weekend.

The only other notable bright spot in Hollywood was "Remember the Titans," a film derided for cliches, but one that performed well at the box office despite the critics. The movie grossed $19.6 million last weekend, pushing its total to $46.2 million over a 10-day period. Though last weekend saw Hollywood's top films gross over $77 million, a number 4.2% short of the same period of last season, it is a vast improvement over previous weeks, which resulted in drops in excess of 20% over last year's totals.

Other movies that have done well in early viewing include Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" and more mainstream films, including "Get Carter" and "The Exorcist."