Ring Two tops US box office!

The critics warned: Don't answer that phone. But as it happens so very often, the warning went unheeded and The Ring Two showed it was not going to be scared by hostile reviews.

The shocker, starring Naomi Watts as a single mother fighting to save her young son from an avenging ghost, grossed about $36 million in its first three days.

Most horror films, especially the ones that open big, lose much of their box-office collections in the second week, but even if Ring Two were to fall by about 60 percent in its second week, it could still end its run with at least $80 million and with a decent profit. The movie costs an estimated $25 million.

While the weekend was notable for the strong opening for The Ring Two, it also set a record for director Martin Scorsese. For the first time in his Hollywood career, he saw one of his films, The Aviator, reach $100 million in North America.

The movie that won five Oscars, now on its last legs, could make a couple of more millions in the next two or three weeks. Scorsese's previous film Gangs Of New York grossed about $77 million in North America.

The worldwide gross for The Aviator is fast reaching $200 million. To a medium budget movie, the numbers would be heavenly. Yet, because the film cost a small fortune, The Aviator will not be profitable unless its DVD sales and rentals are very strong.

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An exception to the big second week fall for horror films was The Ring, which opened with a modest $15 million two years ago and became a sleeper hit, earning $135 million in North America. In two weeks, we will know if the sequel has repeat value and can at least come near its predecessor's impressive gross.

The sequel was directed by Hideo Nakata, who had piloted the original Ringu series in Japan to great box-office success. Unlike many horror films, the Ring series tries to build suspense without resorting to blood and gore.

But the critics protested the film was not suspenseful, and limped along for most part. Some wondered if director Nakata, who was making his American debut with the film, was tired of the genre.

'The movie's torpid pacing and blocks of dead space will leave plenty of time for a bored and frustrated audience to yell obscenities at the screens,' Wesley Morris wrote in the Boston Globe.

But the audiences tended to agree with the likes of Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times. He wrote the film's 'ability to make absolutely no sense' gave it some charm since it also generated 'a real enough feeling of tension a good deal of the time.'

With the arrival of the horror film, Robots fell to second place, earning an impressive $21.8 million in its second weekend but its 10-day total of $66.8 million shows that the Fox film is not going to be a superhit in the league of their Ice Age, which grossed a surprising $176 million three years ago.

Showing stronger legs than expected, family comedy The Pacifier had another fun-filled week. It was the third highest grossing film of the week, and is certain to cross the $100 million benchmark within a month.

Newcomer Ice Princess had a lukewarm reception, and grossed about $10 million at fourth place.

And yet it may not be a loser in the long run since it did not cost much ($20 million, estimated) and could be a winner in DVD sales

The movie revolves around a teenager (Michelle Trachtenberg) who wants to be a champion figure skater, while her mother wants her to concentrate on getting into Harvard.

Some leading critics thought that despite the seemingly formulaic twists, the movie redeemed itself.

'I started by clicking off the obligatory scenes, and then somehow the film started to get to me, and I was surprised how entertained I was,' wrote Ebert.

'Like Shall We Dance? or Saturday Night Fever, it escapes its genre,' he added. 'That's partly because the screenplay avoids the usual rigid division of good and evil, and gives us characters who actually change during the movie. Partly because the acting is so convincing.'

This was followed by the enduring comedy Hitch, still making millions laugh in its sixth week. Its gross has reached almost $160 million, and it seems to have still a lot of laugh ammunition left.

The Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby is still on the top 10 chart, and with a $4 million weekend gross of a $90 million total, it could cross the $100 million mark in about four weeks.

Knocking close to the top 10 list is The Upside of Anger, the critically acclaimed comedy about relationships. Despite playing in just about 153 theatres, the Kevin Costner and Joan Allen movie grossed a peaceful $1.8 million in its second week. With several more expansions planned over the coming weeks, expect the film to be a sleeper hit, and climb the chart gradually. The movie, which cost about $12 million, has excellent chances of recouping its investment and make a modest profit.

Among the smaller movies on a slow expansion track, Millions, the comedy fable about problems money causes, grossed about $240,000 in its second weekend, on 28 screens. This week will see its first big test when it adds on about 100 screens in the middle of the week.

The British import has received mostly raves from the likes of The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. The heavy Welsh accent of the film's characters may pose a slight problem in the beginning, but one gets used to it in a few minutes.

As for Hindi films, Bewafaa has almost ended its run with a not-so-exciting $1.1 million in North America and the United Kingdom in four weeks with $450,000 minted in the former territory. The Amitabh Bachchan starrer Black, enjoying more longevity than most recent Hindi films, is ending its seven-week run with about $1.7 million on both sides of the Atlantic.

Now in its sixth weekend, Bride & Prejudice is increasingly showing signs of weak legs. It added 21 screens over the weekend and took its total screen count to 288, but could not arrest its slide.

Box-office estimates for North America, March 18-20