"Mothman Prophecies" has got off to a good start and is spreading the local folklore to the nation.

Monday, January 28, 2002

"Mothman Prophecies" has got off to a good start and is spreading the local folklore to the nation.

According to the Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., the movie, which stars Richard Gere, debuted at No. 4 with $11.8 million in box office sales.

The movie was outranked by "Black Hawk Down,” which made $18.2 million this weekend and has been on top for the second week in a row; ”Snow Dogs,” which made $13.6 million; and ”A Walk to Remember,” which earned $13.57 million in ticket sales.

An employee of Cinemark Movies 10 in Ashland declined to comment on the specific ticket sale numbers, citing company policy, but said there were a "few sell-out" shows on Friday and ticket sales remained high on Saturday and Sunday.

The movie is "based on true events," that occurred in Point Pleasant, W.Va. during the 1960s.

The premise is simple – Washington Post reporter John Klein, played by Gere, tries to investigate his wife’s death, but there’s a problem. A screechy metallic sound belonging to the ominous Mothman rips through the theater.

Two years after his wife, Mary (Debra Messing), dies from a car crash, he inexplicably ends up driving to the small town of Point Pleasant where people repeatedly tell him that strange things have been happening.

Many of them also draw the same vague Mothman sketch that Mary drew on her deathbed in the hospital – a reddish-black, crushed Crayola splotch that resembles a Rorschach test.

All this is supposed to be scary, but even the supposedly climactic bridge collapse – which the Mothman predicted, naturally – is a boring display of crushing steel and concrete.

Based on John A. Keel’s 1975 book ”The Mothman Prophecies,” the movie raises the questions: Is some supernatural, winged creature truly wrecking havoc? Or is he trying to warn people of impending doom?

"The Mothman Prophecies," a Screen Gems release, is rated PG-13 for terror, some sexuality and language. Running time: 119 minutes.

<I>The Associated Press contributed to this article