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

Warning: Gross Out Leads to Box Office Indigestion Weekend movie going dipped to its lowest level this year despite the arrival of a quartet of new movies and the sort of regional weather that historically gets people into cinemas. Apart from the continuing appeal of 50 First Dates, no film in theaters grossed more than $10 million. The Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore romantic-comedy doubled its closest competitor with an estimated $21.5 million. In addition to four new entries, two films went out with sneak preview screenings on Friday and Saturday. While admittedly expectations overall leaned toward a soft frame, ticket sales were even more downbeat than had been predicted. Best of the newcomers was Disney's young female targeted Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen that ranked second with an estimated $9.1 million. The film had a slight edge over the freshman class both because of the specificity of its audience and also as its appeal group tends to rush out on opening weekend. Slotting fourth was DreamWorks' teen comedy Eurotrip with an expected $6.6 million bow. Coincidentally, DreamWorks bowed its similar appeal comedy Old School one year ago and challenged Daredevil's second weekend with a $17.5 million debut. Overall weekend ticket sales should edge just past $90 million, representing a sizeable 27% drop from seven days earlier for the first three days of the Presidents Day holiday weekend. Business was also down by 20% from 2003 when Daredevil led with $18 million and four new movies bowed to results ranging from excellent to poor (MGM's Dark Blue grossing just $3.9 million). The weakest performers among the bowing foursome also came as no surprise, though each was expected to perform better than their actuals. The political satire Welcome to Mooseport fell somewhere in the midst of the top 10 with roughly $6.2 million while Against the Ropes wasn't Rocky enough as its yarn of an upstart fight promoter and her boxer eked out about $2.8 million. The sheer volume of product that's propped up movie going for the past three years has also meant that the marketplace tends to produce hits and misses and very few mid-range performers. A handful of films all grossed between $2.7 million and $3 million and will likely been rearranged when final figures are reported Monday. Regardless, the box office landscape for mainstream movies tends to bunch up with movies that gross in excess of $75 million and those that fall short of $50 million domestically. Going out in previews Friday was Fox's offbeat comedy The Girl Next Door. The studio was upbeat about exit polling but had to admit that attendance was disappointing and that it will do additional sneaks Oscar weekend. Warner Bros. generated better sales Saturday for Starsky and Hutch, though some engagements were poorly attended. It's exit polls skewed toward males and to a slightly older than anticipated audience. With Oscar seven days off, such films as Mystic River, The Return of the King and Monster continued to hold their own in the mainstream while Lost in Translation, In America and Girl with a Pearl Earring remained competitive in the niches. However, there was no sign of a last minute upturn and that's not a good sign for reversing the telecast's declining numbers and rating during the past decade. Activity in regional and specialized arenas was extremely quiet with the most significant new indie opener - IFC's Norwegian import Kitchen Stories - bowing with an encouraging $41,000 at eight venues. There was also a very good 31-screen launch of the family friendly The Blue Butterfly in Quebec that grossed close to $140,000. - by Leonard Klady