Will ''XXX'' outearn ''Blue Crush''?

It’s the battle of the sexes among action-film hotties at the box office this weekend, as the chick surfers of ”Blue Crush” take on ”XXX” star Vin Diesel.

With ”XXX” likely to see its take sliced in half from last week’s $44.5 million debut, could the ”Blue Crush” girls open at No. 1? Possibly. ”XXX” was torn apart by critics, though moviegoers seemed to go for its campy thrills. Still, action movies that open big usually fall big in week two (see last summer’s ”Planet of the Apes” and ”Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”). Should ”XXX” plummet in the 50-55 percent range, it would rack up another $21 million this weekend.

Meanwhile, ”Blue Crush,” featuring Diesel’s ”The Fast and the Furious” costar Michelle Rodriguez, will try to ride its wave of big hype and surprisingly good reviews to the top of the heap. With a hot cast both female (Kate Bosworth) and male (Matthew Davis), this will be the movie to see among young girls this weekend. But will it be a big enough draw to overpower Diesel? We’ll see. Expect ”Crush” to surf to about $20 million.

Last week’s second- and third-place entries could slip one notch each this weekend. Mel Gibson’s ”Signs” should see another 50 percent drop to $15 million, while ”Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams” will see a better hold, falling perhaps 40 percent to $10 million.

The week’s other new wide release is the Eddie Murphy nightclub-on-the-moon comedy ”The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” which has been sitting on the Warner Bros. shelves for a year and a half. Will audiences be deterred by the bad buzz? Probably. But the bigger turnoff will likely be ”Pluto”’s stupid trailer, complete with a Uranus joke. All that will add up to an opening in the $8 million range. In other words, Eddie, we have a problem.