Weekend box office

Neither Vin Diesel, Nicole Kidman nor a fat cat voiced by Bill Murray could dislodge “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” from its No. 1 position although each of them grossed more than $20 million apiece, which probably cut into “Harry’s” fortunes. It was only the second time that five films grossed more than $20 million in the same weekend, according to box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The first time was July 25 to 27, 2003, when the top five movies were “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” “Bad Boys II,” “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life” and “Seabiscuit.”

Worth noting among smaller films are the satire about a Christian high school and another movie about Idaho geeks. United Artists’ “Saved!” ascended into the top 10 for the first time as it added 558 theaters and rose from 13th to ninth place, grossing a respectable $4,304 per theater. Fox Searchlight’s popular Sundance entry, which people seem to either love or hate, “Napoleon Dynamite,” opened in six theaters with a quite-good per-theater average of $19,444 and a total of $116,666, Exhibitor Relations reported. DreamWorks’ “Shrek 2,” meanwhile, became the No. 1 animated movie of all time over the weekend with $353.3 million and counting, displacing Disney/Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” ($339.7 million). Until “Nemo,” the original “Shrek” had been the highest-grossing animated movie with $267.7 million.

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*--* Movie 3-day Total Venues Average Weeks (Studio) Gross (Millions) Per Venue 1 Harry Potter and the $34.9 $158.0 3,855 $9,056 2 Prisoner of Azkaban (Warner Bros.)

2 The Chronicles of $24.3 $24.3 2,757 $8,810 1 Riddick (Universal)

3 Shrek 2 (DreamWorks) $23.3 $353.3 3,843 $6,067 4

4 Garfield: The Movie $21.7 $21.7 3,094 $7,022 1 (Fox)

5 The Stepford Wives $21.4 $21.4 3,057 $7,003 1 (Paramount)

6 The Day After Tomorrow $14.5 $153.1 3,210 $4,529 3 (Fox)

7 Raising Helen (Buena $3.7 $31.3 2,103 $1,762 3 Vista)

8 Troy (Warner Bros) $3.4 $125.6 2,003 $1,706 5

9 Saved! (UA) $2.5 $3.7 589 $4,304 3

10 Mean Girls (Paramount) $1.5 $81.3 944 $1,574 7

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Source: Nielsen EDI and Exhibitor Relations

Los Angeles Times