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

A Stepford in the Right Direction Harry Potter remained lord of the box office realm but a trio of new films debuted with unexpected commercial strength that provided a big bounce to domestic movie going. It also contributed to propelling the year's gross past $4 billion - five days faster than that mark was hit in 2003. While Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban rang in with an estimated $34.4 million weekend, the third installment took a sharp 63% drop from its debut frame. The summer placement is likely to provide a faster burn factor in the picture's box office life though that same factor contributed to greater opening strength. Those commercial pluses and minuses will likely even out with the film's ultimate domestic tally on par with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret's $262 million tally. The Chronicles of Riddick, the follow up to the 2000 Pitch Black that set Van Diesel's career on the ascendant, bowed in second spot with $24.8 million. The sci-fi opus has a glossier sheen than the original at the expense of the nitty gritty quality that gave the first outing a cult following and $40 million North American gross. Riddick performed to expectations but both the reconceived The Stepford Wives and the screen version of comic strip feline Garfield exceeded what tracking studies had forecast. Neither titles was expected to climb out of the teens, particularly the latter film that was bumping up against both Harry Potter and Shrek 2. The Stepford Wives, based on Ira Levin's dark, foreboding novel, was translated with relative earnestness in 1975. The new version has refashioned its humor from black to broad comic and appears to have hit a nerve with contemporary audiences. Its $22.2 million bow ranked fourth in the lineup, a whisker ahead of Garfield's $21.6 million meow. The top five said a great deal about recycling with three sequels, a remake and an adaptation fueling ticket sales of slightly better than $160 million. It provided that rare instance of five titles each with better than a $20 million gross. Overall, that was 33% better than 2003 when a trio of new films - Rugrats Go Wild, Hollywood Homicide, Dumb and Dumberer - performed below expectations. New Line sneaked its four hankie The Notebook Saturday in roughly 1,200 locations and reported average capacities of 80%. Exit polls on the adaptation of the bestselling novel pulled 92% favorable response and as expected the film's audience was predominantly female though the company said response from women under the age of 25 was stronger than expected. It opens theatrically on June 25. The weekend also provided good news for MGM's irreverent comedy Saved! as it expanded into major markets and grossed $2.6 million and a solid $4,450 theater average. The indie acquisition is earning its theaters as it bucks the seasonal trend of big event movies. In a more limited but no less impressive fashion, Control Room added 31 screens to its exclusive Manhattan run for a healthy $120,000 frame. The documentary on the Al Jazeera network and the invasion of Iraq benefited from strong reviews and the pre-release attention accorded Fahrenheit 9/11 that opens in two weeks. The majority of niche titles entering the marketplace bowed to disappointing response with the major exception of Napoleon Dynamite. The offbeat comedy that debuted at Sundance opened at six theaters with an impressive per engagement average of more than $17,000. Single screen preems in Los Angeles were unimpressive with the portrait film My Sister Maria grossing $3,500 and the long-delayed political drama Imagining Argentina eking by $2,300. - by Leonard Klady