The $51.2 million opening weekend gross for "8 Mile," featuring the
much-buzzed-about screen debut of rapper Eminem, earned $3 million
less than original studio estimates but still managed the second-
biggest debut ever for an R-rated film, according to final figures
released Monday.Such blockbuster ticket sales raises the question of
how an R-rated film was able to generate so much business without
under-age kids making up a significant part of the audience.Universal
Pictures, which released the film from Imagine Entertainment, said 69
percent of those who bought tickets were under the age of 25."If you
went to theaters on Friday afternoon, you would see wall-to-wall
teens," said Robert Bucksbaum, president of Reel Source Inc., a box
office analysis firm. "How they got there is the question of the
day." Regal Entertainment Group, which comprises the Edwards
Theaters, Regal Cinemas and United Artists chains, said they beefed
up monitoring measures at a number of their 532 locations."We posted
additional personnel at the entrance of auditorium doors to monitor
underaged moviegoers attempting to sneak into '8 Mile,"' said Regal
spokesman Dick Westerling. "We did find it necessary to pay
additional attention."While Regal is the country's largest movie
exhibitor, smaller chains and theaters are not able to spare the
extra personnel for such intense monitoring.Bucksbaum said he
personally observed some 17-year-olds buying tickets for kids who
appeared between about 10 and 14 and speculated that some savvy teens
may have purchased their tickets through increasingly popular online
services, some which enable tickets to be printed at home with a bar
code scanned at the front door."If the kids want to see a movie, they
will find a way," Bucksbaum said.Santa Monica-based Fandango Inc., an
online movie tickets service, said exhibitors were checking the IDs
of young-looking patrons with their printed tickets at the door since
they could bypass the box office.Several groups of youths at the AMC
theaters in Woodland Hills on Monday said they had already seen "8
Mile" over the weekend. While some said a parent or adult bought
tickets for the group, others had to be more creative."We just paid
for 'The Ring' and go to the other movies," said 14-year-old Addy
Mizrahi. "You have to wait for a large group of people and walk in
with them so they don't check your ticket."Mizrahi and others said
employees at the Edwards Grand Palace Stadium 6 in Calabasas were
going so far as to check ticket stubs inside the auditorium. Some
kids got kicked out while others quickly changed rows to avoid
detection.Indeed, in this era of the bustling megaplex, it is far
easier for someone under 17 to buy a ticket for a movie like say "The
Santa Clause" or "I Spy" then slip into a showing of an R-rated movie
like "8 Mile."Film studios have been under heavy scrutiny the past
two years because a Federal Trade Commission report issued in
September 2000 was highly critical of studio marketing practices of R-
rated films to children under the age of 17."It was marketed toward
adults," a Universal executive said. "It was very clear that this was
not a kids' movie."John Shaw, president of the Movieline
International tip sheet said Eminem's large fan base of young teens
simply wanted to see the film."No one is going to know how many kids
sneaked in and how many paid," Shaw said. "It's simply hard to
police. But there was no intent on the part of Universal to market
this film for the under 21."Still, there was high awareness of the
film which was marketed heavily on cable's MTV channel. The buzz
among 12- to 15-year-olds was tremendous and the film's visibility
was immeasurably enhanced by the fact the "8 Mile" soundtrack
recently bowed as the top-selling CD on the music industry sales
charts.But the real triumph for "8 Mile" was that it also attracted
crowds far outside Eminem's core fan base including the art house set
and many parents who wanted to see what the fuss was all about,
according to Universal.Other audience demographics included
moviegoers that were 53 percent female, 26 percent African-American
and 20 percent Hispanic."These are people who never would have
thought to listen to Eminem," Bucksbaum said. "Somehow, Universal got
the word out that this is not just another pop star kind of movie.
Everybody wanted to see this movie, not just kids."