'Hitchhiker' Is a Box Office Nova

What was thought by many in the industry to be a tight horse race between the two films debuting in wide release at the box office this weekend turned into a rout instead. A sci-fi adventure-comedy about interplanetary hitchhiking, Buena Vista's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , sizzled in the top spot with an estimated $21.7 million, while a high-octane action-thriller, Sony's XXX: State of the Union, fizzled in third place with an estimated $13.7 million.

The opening for Hitchhiker, from Spyglass Entertainment and Touchstone Pictures, proved to be a company best in April for the Disney distribution arm and also was the highest-grossing debut for a PG-rated film for the month. Buena Vista's Holes previously held both those titles with $16.3 million. Martin Freeman stars in the Garth Jennings?directed Hitchhiker, which was based on the popular novel by Douglas Adams.

The XXX sequel's dour debut?relative to its industry-estimated $87 million cost?was a far cry from the stellar $44.5 million opening of the original Revolution Studios picture, which starred Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson. Ice Cube and Jackson star in the PG-13 sequel, which was helmed by Lee Tamahori.

Heading into the weekend, industry insiders were hoping the two new films would inject enough spark into the box office to lift the business out of its nine-week rut, but that didn't happen. This weekend marks the 10th consecutive down frame as compared with last year. A key factor in the box office slump is that within that comparative 10-week period, there were 10 more wide releases in 2004 than this year, with 34 vs. 24 (HR 4/19).

Last weekend's box office champ, Universal's The Interpreter, held the second spot with an estimated $14.2 million. The political thriller from director Sydney Pollack, starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, slipped a moderate 38% from its debut, taking the 10-day cume to about $43.6 million.

The third weekend of MGM's The Amityville Horror scared up an estimated $8.1 million, enough to claim the fourth slot while dropping a moderate 41%. The scarefest has accumulated roughly $55.1 million to date.

Paramount's Sahara continued its slow descent at the box office as it placed fifth with an estimated $6 million. The action-adventure film, starring Matthew McConaughey and helmed by Breck Eisner, has generated an estimated $57.2 million to date.

Remarking on the strong finish of Hitchhiker this weekend as compared to State of the Union, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution president Chuck Viane said: "We were expecting to be in a dogfight and thought it was going to be a very competitive weekend. We anticipated hitting $20 million, so we lived up to our anticipations, but we were blown away by the size of the differential between the two films when the final numbers came in." Hitchhiker also opened at No. 1 this weekend in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

As to why audiences responded so favorably to Hitchhiker, Viane said, "I think what attracted moviegoers was that the look of the film is so unique, and it presents the audience with something fresh." The picture?which also stars Bill Nighy, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Alan Rickman, Sam Rockwell, Warwick Davis and John Malkovich?drew more males than females, with 59% comprising the former, and reached a broad age demographic. The audience was split evenly in the over- and under-25 age groups, with teens making up 26% of patrons.

XXX also picked up a big male audience, comprising 64% of moviegoers, just not in the numbers hoped for. "We're disappointed," Sony Pictures Releasing president Rory Bruer said. "We felt like we had all the elements?we had great star in Ice Cube, a great director in Lee Tamahori, and everyone at Sony and Revolution worked very hard on the film. We would have liked to have done more." The pricey sequel skewed slightly younger, with 53% in the 25-and-younger group.

Other films in the top 10 this weekend included Buena Vista's A Lot Like Love, a romantic comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet. Like Love placed sixth with an estimated $5.2 million, down 31% from its debut, moving the cume to date to $14.7 million.

Sony Pictures Classics' Kung Fu Hustle placed seventh, with an estimated $3.8 million from 2,440 theaters. The martial arts action-comedy averaged $1,557 per theater as the total advanced to $13.2 million.

20th Century Fox's Fever Pitch was rounding the bases on it fourth weekend in the eighth slot, with an estimated $3.8 million. The Drew Barrymore?Jimmy Fallon starrer has crossed the plate with an estimated $36.5 million so far.

In the world of limited releases, Fine Line's The Holy Girl, an R-rated drama from Argentina, opened in two locations and grossed an estimated $32,000. Directed by Lucrecia Martel, the Spanish-language film averaged a hearty $16,000 per theater.

IDP's Ladies in Lavender, from Roadside Attractions, grossed an estimated $154,000 from 22 venues in New York and Los Angeles this weekend. The British drama set in 1936, directed by Charles Dance and starring Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Angelica Huston, was off to a promising start with a stout per-theater average of $7,000. Ladies expands to the top 20 markets May 13.

Sony Pictures Classics' 3-Iron opened in seven locales and picked up an estimated $21,721, averaging $3,103 per theater. The romantic drama from South Korea, directed by Kim Ki-duk, already has won several film festival awards, which should help audience awareness in the weeks ahead.

The second weekend of Magnolia Pictures' Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room proved to be energetic. The documentary added 46 theaters, taking the count to 49, and billed an estimated $440,000, which translates to a per-theater average of a charged $8,980. A spokesperson for the distributor noted that the film played across the board in all venues. Enron has taken in approximately $550,000 to date.

This weekend's top 12 films garnered an estimated $84.8 million, down some 2% from the comparable session last year. But because of the overall weaker performances in the lower rankings, The Hollywood Reporter projects the total for all films this weekend to be in the low- to mid-$90 million area, down from last year's $102.8 million tally.

The national box office for the week ending April 28 was off nearly 6% from the comparable seven-day period last year ($123.4 million vs. $130.7 million). The year-to-date box office is holding steady with a 6% shortfall from last year at this time ($2.4 billion vs. $2.6 billion), and estimated admissions for the year to date have dropped nearly 8% from the corresponding period a year earlier.