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

April 10, 2005 Spring Break In an otherwise arid movie going period, Sahara swept up an estimated $18.4 million to emerge as top choice at the box office. It was a swing and a miss commercially for the bow of Fever Pitch that ranked third with $13.2 million and the best news was in the niches where Kung Fu Hustle generated a very potent $39,000 average from seven engagements. The bottom line sank dramatically. Overall business was the lowest thus far in 2005 and theater owners are crossing their fingers that lamb-entable early April will in fact exit like a lion. The week was anticipated to be a tight race between the debuts of the adventure yarn Sahara and the romantic-comedy with Red Sox, Fever Pitch. The latter film appeared well on its way to bagging the b.o. Pennant based on Friday matinees and upbeat reviews that its older appeal audience might have read. But the elation was short lived and Sahara left its competitor choking dust. Sahara, based on the Clive Cussler novel, had a tortuous production history that sent its budget soaring to a cost rumored to be as high as $150 million. While its weekend tally was better than anticipated, the picture had to gross close to $40 million to provide its production company Crusader Entertainment with the juice to recoup its investment. It might still surprise pundits if its overseas box office more than doubles its domestic performance. Fever Pitch also looks like a commercial grounder. It slipped in just behind the second weekend gross of Sin City that's been playing better than expected considering its single quadrant appeal. However, with the possible exception of Japan, its second act prospects internationally bode even worse than a Red Sox miracle. Overall business was at its lowest in a year that can already be characterized as depressed. The weekend tally should scrape up slightly more than $85 million for an 18% decline from the prior frame and an even more dire 26% drop from 2004. Last year's box office leader The Passion of the Christ grossed about $15 million but a significantly larger number of films in theaters were posting better than $500,000 during the three-day span. The current box office is trailing last year's record by about 7%. One of the first quarter's plus notes, The Pacifier, crossed $100 million on Sunday. The season has certainly had its share of unexpected hits but they've just been less plentiful than in year's past. Asian box office star Stephen Chow finally received a North American embrace reflective of his foreign dynamism with Kung Fu Hustle generating about $270,000 from seven well-appointed screens. The antic mix of action and comedy still has many hurdles to clear as it expands but it's already his biggest hit in the Far East where it's grossed more than $65 million. The rest of the freshmen entries in limited and regional release proved unexceptional. The Bollywood circuit Lucky grossed a tepid $110,000 from 44 screens while the American indie Winter Solstice eked out close to $20,000 from five locations. There were also disappointing returns for the Canadian Rockyesque Saint Ralph that bowed in 14 theaters to a weekend tally of about $37,500. The specialized allure of the three parter Eros provided a not terribly sexy $55,000 from 12 venues and the good intentioned Smile proved expressionless with a bit more than $19,000 from 60 playdates that translated to a less than happy face $320 average. - by Leonard Klady