The combined star power of Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt helped ''The Mexican'' rule the box office for a second straight weekend. The kidnap comedy earned an estimated $12.1 million, bringing its 10 day total to $38.3 million. Analysts predict that ''The Mexican'' could eventually gross as much as $60 to 70 million domestically. ''It's a fun road movie, and people like that,'' Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, told the Associated Press. However, the overall box office was down for the first weekend since mid-October, with the top dozen movies grossing just $62 million -- a 17 percent drop from last weekend.
The R-rated thriller ''15 Minutes'' -- starring Robert De Niro and Edward Burns as cops in pursuit of a media savvy killer -- came in second with a modest $10.5 million take. The David Arquette and a dog comedy ''See Spot Run'' (No. 3) earned another $6.6 million in its second week, while ''Hannibal'' (No. 4) bit into a further $5.7 million. The Chris Rock laugher ''Down to Earth'' rounded out the top five with $5.5 million. The Kirsten Dunst teen comedy ''Get Over It,'' the weekend's only other wide release, opened at No. 6, earning $4.4 million.
CRITICAL MASS ''15 Minutes'' may prove to be all too prophetic a title for how long this flick lasts in moviegoers' minds, according to EW.com's readers poll. Online visitors were a lot kinder to this thriller than EW's critic, who gave it a D, but even so, an overall rating of B- does not look promising. The movie's savage critique of the media played better in the Midwest (where it got an A) and with women (who gave it a B compared to its C+ from men). The big draw for ticket buyers? Some 52 percent said De Niro and Burns lured them in, and 28 percent said it was the trailer. Still, just 40 percent said they'd definitely recommend it to others.
Meanwhile, we don't know enough about ''Get Over It'' to get a reading on it. Miramax opened the film without screening it for critics -- including EW's -- and too few EW.com readers reported back on the Kirsten Dunst comedy to tell us what it was like. But that's okay. We can, like, get over it.
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