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

Rabbit Punch There was no second coming despite the preponderance of sequels on the marquee during the Easter holiday frame. The debuts of Guess Who and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous topped the box office but without the box office dynamism of such recent entries as Robots, Ring Two or The Pacifier. The result was a double-digit decline in movie going with the few targeting the pew. The weekend, according to industry tracking, belonged to the Miss Congeniality sequel and Warner Bros. accordingly decided to debut the film on Thursday ahead of the pack. Its $3 million bow provided every confidence that it would ring up about $25 million for the four days but that scenario would quickly evaporate. Conversely, the ad hoc switcheroo on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was expected to rank third overall with a gross in the neighborhood of $15 million. Instead it exceeded expectations with audiences provides these ayes to an estimated $21.6 million fueled by a young multi-ethnic crowd. Miss Congeniality 2 barely nosed into second with $14.4 million for the 3-days and The Ring Two's sophomore session recorded about $14.3 million. Overall business declined by roughly 13% from seven days earlier with a tally around $102 million. It was also down by some 16% from calendar 2004 and 14% from last year's Easter period. In general, the leading holdover titles experienced 33% declines and the sturdier fare in the marketplace skewed more adult or niche in appeal. Several films including The Upside of Anger and Downfall continued to maintain momentum in slow rollouts with the former titled primed for its national debut next weekend. Fox Searchlight boosted its exposure on Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda and scored $810,000 from 95 venues. Its Brit import Millions also added screens and kept a sturdy $6,700 average at 77 locations. The frame also had a healthy number of regional and limited openers including a ho-hum $120,000 gross from a 32 screen launch of La Vie avec mon pere in Quebec. Also virtually under the radar was the 45 playdates of the distaff action spoof D.E.B.S. that failed to graduate with $58,000 report card. On the plus side, the relatively nascent Tartan Films had its best ever bow with the critically acclaimed Korean revenge opus Old Boy grossing around $61,000 from five theaters. Similarly, the Sundance-preemed The Ballad of Jack and Rose generated $60,000 from four screens. Other openers included an upbeat response of $22,000 for three exposures of the Israeli Nina's Tragedies and a sweet bouquet of $10,300 for the wine doc Mondovino at a single Manhattan site. A-M-C … See you later! There was more than a ripple last week when the AMC circuit rather abruptly decided to close down its Los Angeles film booking office and move its entire operation to headquarters in Kansas City. Local reps for the theater chain were given the option of headin' out to Missour,i but many weren't ready to quickly uproot on this cattle drive. Most of the national theater chains - including Regal and Loews - have L.A. offices for the strategic and political edge of being close to studio distribution. Even Canada's Famous Players chain has a SoCal office. Response from key distributors was less than enthusiastic, tinged by shakeups in AMC's booking department that will see long standing alliances broken and new relationships established. The majors won't be adding K.C. to their travel itinerary and one division chief said he's been told that the circuit's new head booker, Sonny Gurley, is committed to spending a week in Los Angeles every month to deal with the circuit's needs. - by Leonard Klady