..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

The Rock and Rollers The ascendancy of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson took another step forward as his antic thriller The Rundown led weekend moviegoing with an estimated $18.4 million. There was also mixed tidings for the debut of Under the Tuscan Sun with a $9.4 million gross and the scriptures found comfort in the commercial recesses with bows of Luther and The Gospel of John in a generally soft marketplace. While not yet in the boffo leagues, the amiable thriller The Rundown demonstrated that The Rock is quickly developing a fan core comparable to the early returns for bygone action heroes that have included Chuck Norris, Van Damme and Steven Seagal. However, he's receiving better personal reviews than that trio and with Arnie possibly sidelined for several years and Sly segueing into character roles, he has a clear path to stardom with the selection of the right vehicles. Under the Tuscan Sun, loosely based on the bestseller of the same name, opened in second spot. Though trailing significantly, the Buena Vista release was in 61% fewer theaters and had a 32% better screen average. Still, expansion plans are modest and it's hard to imagine that the film can be sustained in the upcoming weeks as a flood of new films enter the marketplace. In the seesaw viewing trends that have marked 2003, business "see-ed" to close to $90 million overall for the weekend. That "saw-ed" off 12% of 2002 sales and was down by 14% for one week ago. Twelve months earlier, Sweet Home Alabama was top choice with a $35.6 million debut and it was followed by the $15 million bow of The Tuxedo. The frame's other national release was the black comedy Duplex. However, despite a pedigree comic cast, audiences steered clear of the urban nightmare that grossed $4.5 million and landed seventh in viewing preferences. The session also saw limited bows of two religious themed pictures. Luther, the latest screen bio of the 16th Century reformer, secured 400 plus screens and a less than reverential box office of $730,000. The Gospel of John targeted 14 screens in three markets that translated into roughly $110,000. Neither film could stir up any vestigial interest from the current controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's The Passion that's yet to secure domestic distribution. Films in continuing runs displayed no appreciable deviations from seasonal trends. Last week's chart topper Underworld declined 60% while the other four second weekers experienced erosions ranging from 31% to 65%. On first blush there are no films in the mainstream or in the niches that are bucking the tide with resilient box office returns. Among the other specialized and regional openers, Sony Classics' My Life Without Me had no better than fair response of $39,400 from seven venues and MAC Releasing's single screen L.A. bow of Prey for Rock 'n Roll was eyeing $7,800. In Canada, the Quebec bow of the French hit Chouchou came up shot with $26,000 from 21 screens and the family offering Kart Racer crawled to $77,500 in 85 theaters. The Whole Wide Screen The industry is reeling from the MPAA blitzkrieg assault that rendered a Friday afternoon decision not to send DVD screeners to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood Foreign Press and sundry other critics' organizations. As late as Thursday, the consensus was that it was too late in the awards process to set up the policy for this year. The argument was further heightened by the fact that Oscar season is a month shorter for the first time since video screeners became commonplace in campaigning about 15 years ago. So, the conclusion was that the Academy would send members a letter reminding them that receiving the tapes was a courtesy and privilege not to be squandered. According to a senior studio exec, Friday's meeting on the subject was brief as reps from the majors arrived convinced of the efficacy of the move. He characterized the growth of piracy of DVDs as "cancerous" and the action as "symbolic." He did not see the decision as eliminating or significantly diminishing the problem and said that current evidence places direct from screen camcorder recording as the primary source of pirated tapes. You can be assured that heated response to the decision will be immediate, intense and on-going. - by Leonard Klady