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

R … As in Resurrection The remake of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead rose to the top of weekend movie going with an estimated $28.2 million usurping the prior three week champion The Passion of The Christ. Another freshman outing - Taking Lives - ranked third with an $11.5 million tally and all three pictures shared the common theme of characters resurrected from the dead and an R-rating from the Classification and Ratings Administration. Ironically, at a time when a lot of ink has been spilled about the NC-17 rating, it's R-tagged films that are having a revival and providing a boost to what had been sagging box office figures. Through March 18, overall box office is 3% ahead of the comparable period in 2003 and that after close to two months of trailing the prior year. The current weekend is also significantly above last year by 27%. As with last year's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the current Dawn of the Dead underlined the old adage about not being able to keep a good zombie or ghoul down. The relatively modest-budget horror yarn is probably better known in name than actual viewing by the crowds that embraced its opening weekend. A wry mix of black humor and chills tapped into the current zeitgeist and pocketbooks. The Passion of The Christ again saw its box office off by a little more than a third to slip into second spot with about $19.6 million. It was slightly shy of $300 million and should reach that level on its 29th day of release on Wednesday - faster than all but three other movies. The Passion made its first forays into Latin America over the weekend with excellent bows in both Mexico and Brazil. Mexico should gross $4.5 million at about 360 theaters while Brazil appears headed for a $3.5 million gross from roughly 300 screens. The domestic weekend tally should total a little better than $120 million for a 6% upturn from last weekend and, as noted a 27% increase from 2003. A year ago Bringing Down the House led the field in its third week with $16.3 million followed up the opening weekend of Dreamcatcher with $15 million and a fourth place bow of $7 million for A View from the Top. The serial killer thriller Taking Lives had an OK start of $11.5 million but is unlikely to sustain well in the coming weeks. The other national debut, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, was seventh ranked with a respectable $6,000 theater average. The offbeat sci-fi romantic comedy headlining Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet received generally mixed reviews and will have a tough time expanding from its initial run of 1353 playdates. Most of the continuing titles in the marketplace experienced drops between 25% and 35% and that's likely to continue through to Easter recess. The exception was Nascar: The Imax Experience that continued to rev up the large screen sector with a downward rattle of less than 10%. The sector has been ready for its close-up for about a decade and though the majors (particularly Warners and Disney) have tested those waters, the present number of worldwide venues financially restrict what can be made in original programming. Specialized openers once again were scant with IFC's Irish gangster import Intermission ringing up about $35,000 from 10 locations. Additionally, there were a couple of single screen bows in Manhattan including a buoyant $26,400 launch of France's Oscar submission Bon Voyage with Isabel Adjani and Gerard Depardieu and Palm's Icelandic Noi, a yarn of a troubled teen, eking out a little more than $4,000. - by Leonard Klady