March 16th, 2004

More "Passion"

Nothing can top The Passion Of The Christ, as it remained in first place for the third week in a row with a healthy 32.1 million and has passed over 260 million at the box office. Opening in a strong second was the pushed-up Johnny Depp thriller Secret Window with 18.2 million. Last week's strong openers, Starsky and Hutch and Hidalgo held up strongly in their second weekends out with 16 million and 11.8, respectively.

On the family film front, news wasn't so good for the quickie, panned sequel Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London. The original opened around this time last year and did good business, but it looks like the sequel won't be having the same fate. 50 First Dates slid to sixth with 5.4 million, and became the second film of the year to reach 100 million. Meanwhile, Twisted took in another 3 million.

Rounding out the top ten was Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen with 2.4 million, the Oscar-winning The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King with 2.02 million and the new David Mamet thriller Spartan, which didn't break out much with a mere 2.01 million.

Can a zombie remake or an early Oscar contender outgross Jesus? See you next week, DVD fans!

-Zach B.