Daily News from New York, New York • 484

TO rtS I LU 3 JUL W. 173 St Low-budget 'Witch' flick sets record The New York and Presbyterian By BRIAN O'KEEFE Cast members Michael Williams (L), Joshua Leonard and Heather Donahue 1 "The Blair Witch Project." ft 3 -0 CO JO 1 1 2 W. 163 SI p-ai, DAlUr NEWS STAFF WRITER It may have come in second, but "The Blair Witch Project" cooked up a wicked box-office brew in its first weekend of wide release. Made for just Uptown Jk Pi if i kJVVi 7 plan eyes gieiv hotel By OWEN MORITZ AIY NEWS STAFF WRITER Washington Heights, which $60,000, the Internet-hyped independent movie pulled in $28.5 million over three days $25,000 for every one of the 1,001 screens showing it. That's a per-screen record, experts said.

The big-studio, big-star, big-budget "Runaway Bride" starring a reunited Julia Roberts and Richard Gere managed to beat out "Blair" for top has shared only modestly in the city's economic boom, will get a Iitzy 300-room hotel under a $211 million plan approved by the New York Empowerment Zone. Meanwhile, separate plans are underway to bring a 12-screen, $20 million multiplex theater to the Port Authority bus station at the George Washington Bridge. The Washington Heights Pla za Hotel would rise at Fort Wash ington Ave. and 165th St. and $VfeAf-v Directors Eduardo Sanchez (I.) and rtifiOSS Daniel Myrick made the hit film for mainly serve The New York and Presbyterian Hospital, the community's biggest employer.

president of Artisan. "This film has really turned into a phenomenon. It's really beyond expectations." The film achieved success through an Internet-focused With room rates projected at $160 to $180 a night, the hotel will aim to provide accommodations for doctors, patients and families of patients. But Sybil Dodson, chairman of Manhattan Community Board 12, sees the creation of 1,000 per manent new jobs and 800 construction jobs as a "great opportunity" for the community. Ihe empowerment zone, a weekend earnings, bringing in $34.5 million.

Third place went to "Deep Blue Sea" which brought in $18.6 million and fourth place went to "The Haunting," at $15.1 million. Disney's "Inspector Gadget" topped off the top five at $14 million. But everyone was talking about "The Blair Witch Project," the scary little independent film that is giving Hollywood a run for its money. "Good for them," Courtney Martin, 23, of Manhattan, said of the Florida film grads who made the picture. "They're smart.

It's a subversion of the situation. Movies cost too much to make." Martin was among those waiting at the Angelika Film Center on Houston St. in S0H0 to see the film, which uses a grainy, documentary style to tell the story of three young filmmakers on a witch hunt. It could turn out to be the most profitable movie of the year. According to Artisan Entertainment, which distributed it, the film broke a per-screen average record of $21,000 established earlier this year by "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace." The distributors expect the film to gross over $100 million.

"This is amazing," said Amir Malin, subsidiary of the state's Empire State Development has approved a $25 million loan to I Hudson Parkway LC, Columbia marketing that built hype and expectation methodically. In the film's first two weeks of release, in only 27 selected theaters, it averaged $60,000 per screen. "What we tried to do was create the impression of an event by coun-terprogramming," Malin said. Malin said Artisan has spent $15 million on marketing. He compared that total with the tens of millions regularly spent to produce movies in Hollywood.

I i Iii-iir---' L-JSe -)i 1 AP University and New York and Presbyterian Hospital to build the hotel and conference center on a hospital-owned parking lot. Restaurants, a parking garage and retail, entertainment and recreational space are also part of the deal, officials said. "The Washington Heights hotel project has the potential to create over 1,000 permanent jobs and provide hotel and conference services which are sorely lacking in the upper Manhattan community," said Charles Gargano, who chairs both the New York Empowerment Zone and the Empire State Development Corp. The empowerment zone is a 10-year, $300 million program designed to stimulate economic growth in distressed areas. The city, state and federal government have each contributed $100 million.

At Broadway and 178th plans are on tap for the movie complex, to be built atop the roof parking facility of the 36-year-old George Washington Bridge station. i Runaway Bride 2. The Blair Witch Project 3. Deep Bine Sea 4. The Haunting 5.

Inspector Gadget $14M 6. American Pie Eyes Wide Shut 8. Big Daddy a Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace 10. Tarzan $3M Leonard in, a scene, from the movie..