“Disturbia” Repeats As Box Office Champ

For the second straight week, movie fans everywhere were disturbed and loving it.

The face of Hannibal Lecter was no match in a box-office battle of thrillers, as “Disturbia,” starring Shia LaBeouf as a teen who suspects a neighbour of murder, took in $13.5 million to hold the top weekend movie spot.

Right on its heels was New Line Cinema’s “Fracture,” starring Anthony Hopkins — who played serial killer Lecter in three films — which debuted in second with $11.2 million. This time  Hopkins trades in his classic horror character for the role of a sly defendant accused of killing his unfaithful wife and Ryan Gosling co-stars as the prosecutor.

In third was figure skating comedy “Blades of Glory,” starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, and the former two-week champ raked in $7.8 million in its fourth go-round.

Behind “Fracture” in the rush of new wide releases was another horror film, “Vacancy,” which stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a couple that meets with a terrible fate at a rundown motel. The Psychoish thriller opened in fourth place with $7.6 million, just slightly ahead of the pace enjoyed by buddy-cop comedy “Hot Fuzz.”

“Hot Fuzz” did very well in narrow release though, raking in $5.8 million even though it played on about a third of the screens as the two new releases ahead of it did. It’ s the latest from writer-directors Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, who were also responsible for “Shaun of the Dead.”

2007 got off to a sizzling start, but Hollywood’s overall revenues dropped for the second straight weekend as the top 12 movies took in $74 million, 26 per cent less than the same weekend last year when “Silent Hill” was king.

“This is like an onslaught of films trying to get into the marketplace before the big summer rush,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

“People are just holding their breath waiting for summer to start, and while they’re holding their breath, they didn’t go to the movies in big numbers.”

Studio executives predict this could be a record summer for Hollywood, with big time sequels including “Spider-Man 3,” “Shrek the Third” and “Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End” all slated to hit screens.

Here’s the rest of this weekend’s top 10, with all figures estimated according to Media By Numbers LLC.

1. “Disturbia,” $13.5 million.

2. “Fracture,” $11.2 million.

3. “Blades of Glory,” $7.8 million.

4. “Vacancy,” $7.6 million.

5. “Meet the Robinsons,” $7.1 million.

6. “Hot Fuzz,” $5.8 million.

7. “Are We Done Yet?”, $5.2 million.

8. “In the Land of Women ,” $4.9 million.

9. “Perfect Stranger,” $4.1 million.

10. “Wild Hogs,” $2.9 million.