Arts & Entertainment
 

'Scooby-Doo' on top of the heap

Box office rookies take top spots, 'Sunshine' has seen brighter days

by Zach Lee
The Daily Cougar

Once again, Jesus drops a place in the box office charts, but this week it's because filmgoers have found a tasty treat to replace the host -- a Scooby Snack. The vegetarian snacks have sweetened theaters around the nation as Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and that lovable pup named Scooby Doo run away from monsters onto the big screen for the sequel to 2002's success, Scooby-Doo.

Scooby-Doo 2:Monsters Unleashed screams into theaters with a weekend gross of $30.7 million, more than $16 million ahead of No. 2. At second place, the Tom Hanks-fueled The Ladykillers gets only mediocre success as Hanks returns to the comedic form of his younger days. The film is directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, the creative forces behind Intolerable Cruelty, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Big Lebowski, and it has a long way to go to live up to the powerful names behind it.

The Passion of the Christ refuses to drop significantly, though it has dropped two spots in the past two weeks. At No. 3, it remains strong, standing with $2.5 million more this week than last week's leader Dawn of the Dead, which fell unceremoniously to fourth place.

The only other newcomer this week is Kevin Smith's first foray into the hit-or-miss world of mainstream cinema. Debuting at No. 5, it looks like Jersey Girl missed its mark considerably, although it has time to climb the charts or it can simply hang on long enough to become a sleeper success.

Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke prove that beautiful people still have a special place in cinema as Taking Lives holds the No. 6 spot, and Starsky & Hutch slips in just $0.2 million less than Taking Lives to squeak into seventh place.

Eighth place went to three different films-- as they all pulled in $5.4 million. Hidalgo raced into the position along with Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Johnny Depp's Secret Window.

The fall of Kaufman's Eternal Success disappoints those who hoped for relatively speedy success, but praise by word of mouth may yet boost box office sales.

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