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

Hellelujah! Justice - movie style - was served and served up as Hellboy unleashed its commercial wrath for an estimated $23.2 million and The Rock was Walking Tall at $15.2 million. The two freshmen entries provided a potent push for excellent weekend returns that were once again significantly ahead of 2003. Comic book fugitive Hellboy was just waiting to explode thanks to a carefully orchestrated campaign that teased the uninitiated and obviously drew from a larger pond than its cult fan base. Ironically, commercial expectations for the film had been pegged more modestly entering the weekend and by Sunday the tune had changed to speculation of an even more bountiful debut had it not been competing with Walking Tall. Though liberally based on the 1973 yarn of a real life Southerner that became the poster boy for vigilante justice, the new Walking Tall retains the original's essence. It was perceived as a distant also ran to the comic book hero-villain but, again, surprised the pundits with more box office potency than one normally gets from a big stick. The disappointment of the frame was Disney's animated Home on the Range that bowed in fourth spot with about $14.1 million just behind the second weekend of Scooby-Doo 2. It's not the first time that Disney's illustrated franchise has gone into a declining cycle and critics have stated the division was in need of a toon-up. Of late Pixar has stolen its thunder and the Mouse House's current internal strife has put added pressure on the company to turn around its fortunes in that particular entertainment arena. Weekend business should generate close to $130 million for a sizeable 9% boost from last weekend. It's also a significant 33% better than 2003 when the top three were all newcomers. Last year's trio were Phone Booth, What a Girl Wants and A Man Apart with respective grosses of $15 million, $11.4 million and $11 million. Also bowing nationally was The Prince & Me that charted sixth with just shy of $10 million. Paramount, its distributor, has had a very bad recent case of the box office yips and this modern day romantic fairy tale isn't about to change its fortunes. Like so many of the studio's recent releases, it has the air of something safe and formulaic. Among holdover titles, the second weekends of both The Ladykillers and Jersey Girl both took sizeable hits of more than 40%. However, the recent entry experiencing the worst downturns is Dawn of the Dead that, despite good reviews and exit polls, is bleeding at a weekly rate of 60% and initial expectations of an $80 million have now been scaled back to $65 million. The approach of Easter appears to have resurrected the vitality of The Passion of The Christ with the current frame just 15% down and next weekend expected to be even stronger. The film bowed in both Spain and France over the weekend with the former expected to gross a strong $2 million from about 400 theaters to rank first and a tighter race anticipated in France where opening day figures were lower than anticipated. Specialized bows included Paramount's Sundance entry The United States of Leland with a passable $48,000 gross from 14 venues. There was also good response to a pair of Asian acquisitions including Miramax's oft-delayed opening of Shaolin Soccer with an estimated $35,000 from six screens and Sony Classics' Korean Oscar submission Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring … slightly more potent with $40,000 also from six locations. - by Leonard Klady