Weekend Box Office

After a long drought, naked, bongo drums player Matthew McConaughey has finally appeared in a picture that actually made money. Who'd a thunk? U-571 sunk $19.6 million into its coffers from 2,583 theaters, the third best April opening after The Matrix' $27.8 million and Life's $20.4 million from last year. It benefited from being the first event-style action picture in some time and from a rollicking ad campaign that de-emphasized the former "it-boy's" presence. Of course, it helps not having many submarine pictures out there either, the last two being 1995's Crimson Tide which opened at $18.6 million ($91.4 million total) and 1990's The Hunt for Red October which opened to $17.2 million ($120.7 million).

All's fair for Love and Basketball as the urban romantic drama shot nothing but net, scoring $8.1 million at 1,237 courts. Its opening was in line with other recent urban pictures, The Wood's $8.5 million and The Best Man's $9 million.

Did you hear about the WB's latest teen picture, Gossip? It just couldn't perform and was small, really small, like just $2.3 million from 1,525 theaters.

Among holdovers, Keeping the Faith held up the most impressively, down just 10% to $7.2 million. Sleeper hit Final Destination had yet another gravity-defying hold, dropping 9%, though it has benefited by the Frequency sneak previews these past two weeks.

In general, most pictures benefited from the holiday weekend, dropping in the 20-30% range. Except for American Psycho, which due to mostly negative word-of-mouth tumbled 45% to $2.7 million and looks to end its run in the $15 million range.

Overall box office totaled $91.5 million, up 12% over last weekend and up 2% over the same frame last year when The Matrix regained the top spot from Life, adding another $12.6 million on its way to a $171.4 million total.