Weekend Box Office

It baffles that The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas even got made. What did the studio just greenlight it solely based on the original's $360 million worldwide gross, disregarding such things as the six years that had passed, the entirely new cast and that the original just was neither begging for a another one nor was that well liked to begin with. Predictably, the $58 million production tanked, opening to just $10.5 million from mega-wide 3,040 theaters.

Audiences tuned into Frequency to the tune of $9 million from 2,621 venues. Not bad for the $22-million budgeted underdog. Whether it will become a true sleeper like its New Line stablemate Final Destination remains to be seen as it faces fierce competition for its mostly male demographic starting this Friday with Gladiator. The new "It will make grown men cry" campaign may not help either. Aside from potentially turning off the very grown men the movie targets, it comes off as more of a parody of these types of ads than anything else. Especially with this mouthful of a quote: "It's Back to the Future meets Field of Dreams meets It's a Wonderfel Life meets The Sixth Sense."

Where the Heart Is opened to $8.3 million from 2,437 theaters, solid given the chick flick competition out there and likely quite profitable for Fox, which paid just $9 million for the rights to distribute the $15 million picture in English speaking countries. The opening was also a substantial improvement over Natalie Portman's last picture, Anywhere But Here, which garnered $5.6 million last November en route to just $18.7 million total.

As expected, U-571 held onto the top spot, though it did drop 37% to $12.2 million, totaling $38.1 million after 10 days. Sleeper hit of the spring Final Destination continues to marvel with its remarkable holds, down just 14% to $2.4 million and $45.9 million to date. On the other hand, The Road to El Dorado collapsed 61% confirming suspicions that, without significant competition for families, it was making its money by default.

In limited action, Mike Figgis' Time Code got off to a solid $93,148 start from seven venues. The Big Kahuna starring Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito moved $80,957 from 8 theaters. Somewhat disappointing, given the star power. At least it wasn't the disaster that Heather Graham starrer Committed was. Playing at six theaters, it managed just $11,452 or a $1,909 average.

Overall box office totaled $82.8 million, down 10% from last weekend, but up 35% over the same frame last year when Entrapment topped the chart with $20.1 million en route to $87.7 million total.