'Starsky' Struck

If you’re looking for a surprise, pick up a mystery novel or something — because you won’t find any here. As expected, The Passion of the Christ’s heavenly $53.2 million gross landed the movie in first place for a second straight weekend (in less than two weeks, Mel Gibson’s controversial drama already enjoys a spot in the all-time top 50). As expected, the ’70s TV adaptation Starsky & Hutch (No. 2) and the family-friendly Hidalgo (No. 3) both enjoyed strong openings. And as expected, The Return of the King (No. 7) and Monster (No. 10) both got nice box office bumps after their big — and utterly anticipated — Oscar wins.

TOP 20 NUMBER WEEKEND WEEKS GROSS WEEKEND OF PER-SITE IN TO GROSS* SITES+ AVERAGE RELEASE DATE

1 THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST $53.2 3,170 $16,797 2 $213.9 2 STARSKY & HUTCH $28.1 3,185 $8,824 1 $28.1 3 HIDALGO $18.8 3,063 $6,147 1 $18.8 4 50 FIRST DATES $7.6 3,040 $2,512 4 $99.3 5 TWISTED $5.1 2,704 $1,896 2 $16.5 6 CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE… $4.0 2,180 $1,856 3 $21.8 7 LOTR: THE RETURN OF THE KING $3.0 1,903 $1,596 12 $368.2 8 DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS $3.0 2,042 $1,451 2 $10.1 9 MIRACLE $2.5 1,654 $1,538 5 $59.8 10 MONSTER $2.1 1,082 $1,963 11 $30.0 11 MYSTIC RIVER $2.0 1,051 $1,880 22 $85.2 12 BARBERSHOP 2 $1.8 1,264 $1,392 5 $60.0 13 EUROTRIP $1.6 1,602 $1,012 3 $15.7 14 WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT $1.0 1,515 $663 3 $13.4 15 COLD MOUNTAIN $0.8 750 $1,103 11 $94.0 16 BROKEN LIZARD’S CLUB DREAD $0.7 1,807 $393 2 $4.6 17 YOU GOT SERVED $0.6 498 $1,190 6 $39.0 18 THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT $0.5 554 $940 7 $56.4 19 THE FOG OF WAR $0.4 261 $1,663 12 $2.9 20 SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE $0.4 333 $1,218 13 $123.4

SOURCE: NIELSEN EDI. WEEKEND OF MARCH 5 — MARCH 7 *WEEKEND-GROSS AND GROSS-TO-DATE FIGURES IN MILLIONS +INCLUDES SOME MULTISCREEN THEATERS AND PRINTS SHIPPED AS WELL AS INDIVIDUAL SCREENS

STEPHEN KING Top Grossers

OPENING NUMBER DOMESTIC WEEKEND* OF SITES GROSS

12/10/99 THE GREEN MILE $18.0 2,875 $136.8 11/30/90 MISERY $10.1 1,244 $61.3 4/21/89 PET SEMATARY $12.0 1,585 $57.5 8/8/86 STAND BY ME $0.2 16 $51.9 5/23/80 THE SHINING $0.6 10 $44.0 11/13/87 THE RUNNING MAN $8.1 1,692 $38.1 1976 CARRIE N/A N/A $33.8 3/21/03 DREAMCATCHER $15.0 2,945 $33.7 3/6/92 THE LAWNMOWER MAN $7.8 1,276 $32.1 4/10/92 SLEEPWALKERS $10.0 1,864 $30.5

SOURCE: EXHIBITOR RELATIONS CO., INC. *OPENING-GROSS AND DOMESTIC-GROSS FIGURES IN MILLIONS