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Posted at 5:30 a.m., Monday, April 23, 2007

'Disturbia' No. 1 at weekend box office again

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The face of Hannibal Lecter was no match for Shia LaBeouf in a box-office battle of murder thrillers.

DreamWorks and Paramount's "Disturbia," starring LaBeouf as a teen who suspects a neighbor of murder, took in $13.5 million to hold the top weekend movie spot for a second straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

New Line Cinema's "Fracture" starring Anthony Hopkins — who played serial killer Lecter in three films — debuted at No. 2 with $11.2 million. Hopkins plays a sly defendant accused of killing his unfaithful wife, with Ryan Gosling co-starring as the prosecutor.

DreamWorks and Paramount's figure-skating comedy "Blades of Glory," starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, was No. 3 with $7.8 million in its fourth weekend to cross the $100 million mark.

Sony Screen Gems' horror flick "Vacancy," starring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a couple marked for grisly death at a sleazy motel, led a rush of other new wide releases, opening at No. 4 with $7.6 million.

The buddy-cop comedy "Hot Fuzz," released by Focus Features' Rogue Pictures unit, had a strong start in narrower release, premiering at No. 6 with $5.8 million in 825 theaters, about a third the number of cinemas where "Fracture" and "Vacancy" played.

"Hot Fuzz" comes from the "Shaun of the Dead" team of director Edgar Wright and his co-writer and star Simon Pegg, who plays a London super-cop exiled to a sleepy British town, where he encounters a series of grisly deaths.

The Warner Bros. drama "In the Land of Women" opened at a weak No. 8 with $4.9 million. The movie stars Adam Brody as a heartbroken writer who moves in with his grandmother and forges a relationship with a neighbor (Meg Ryan) and her teenage daughter.

After a solid start this year, Hollywood's overall revenues were down for a second straight weekend. The top 12 movies took in $74 million, off 26 percent compared to the same weekend last year, when "Silent Hill" opened at No. 1 with $20.2 million.

"This is like an onslaught of films trying to get into the marketplace before the big summer rush," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "People are just holding their breath waiting for summer to start, and while they're holding their breath, they didn't go to the movies in big numbers."

However, attendance is up 2.4 percent from last year, and studio executives predict this could be a record summer for modern Hollywood with major sequels including "Spider-Man 3," "Shrek the Third" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

"Disturbia" raised its 10-day total to $40.7 million, already taking in roughly double what it cost to make the movie.

The film has established the 20-year-old LaBeouf, whose big break came as the star of the Disney Channel series "Even Stevens," as a bankable leading man.

"He has this appeal which I think works for the girls obviously, who are big suspense fans, and guys like him, too, so that's a double plus," said DreamWorks spokesman Marvin Levy.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Disturbia," $13.5 million.

2. "Fracture," $11.2 million.

3. "Blades of Glory," $7.8 million.

4. "Vacancy," $7.6 million.

5. "Meet the Robinsons," $7.1 million.

6. "Hot Fuzz," $5.8 million.

7. "Are We Done Yet?", $5.2 million.

8. "In the Land of Women," $4.9 million.

9. "Perfect Stranger," $4.1 million.

10. "Wild Hogs," $2.9 million.

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Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Vivendi Universal; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.