Conan O'Brien joked last week that the audience of ''The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' consisted of one-third 28-year-old men and two-thirds their parents who drove them. But the hobbitheads got the last laugh this weekend as ''Two Towers'' passed the $200 million mark after 10 days in theaters and enjoyed its second weekend on top of the box office with a $48.9 million post-Christmas take, according to industry estimates.
The Middle-earthlings outdistanced what was supposed to be the weekend's big showdown: Leonardo DiCaprio vs. Leonardo DiCaprio. The actor's comic crime caper ''Catch Me if You Can,'' directed by Steven Spielberg, came in at no. 2 with a $30 million weekend, for a total of $48.6 million since it opened on Wednesday. His other film, the long-awaited Martin Scorsese-led ''Gangs of New York,'' finished at No. 5, with $11.2 million for the weekend and an overall take of just $30.1 million since it opened 10 days ago.
Romantic comedy fans continued to line up for ''Two Weeks Notice'' and ''Maid in Manhattan.'' The Sandra Bullock-Hugh Grant entry overtook the Jennifer Lopez-Ralph Fiennes movie for a third place finish, with $16.1 million, over ''Maid'''s fourth-place take of $13 million.
The weekend's other prominent wide release, Roberto Benigni's live-action, dubbed-from-Italian ''Pinocchio,'' could string together only $1.1 million in sales ($1.8 million since its Christmas Day opening). So it missed the Top 10 by more than a nose.
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