From 'K-PAX' to the Box Office

Oct. 22 -- K-PAX, a Kevin Spacey vehicle starring the Oscar winner as a lovable mental patient who claims to be an alien, laid waste to its rivals at the box office this weekend, despite being hampered by an awkward title and weak reviews.

The Universal Studios release topped the field with a gross of $17.5 million, far exceeding analysts' expectations. Halloween came early for Warner Bros. this weekend with a healthy showing for the star-power-challenged Thirteen Ghosts, which came in second with $15.6 million. Competition from the World Series didn't phase moviegoers one bit — the strong opening of both movies made last weekend's crop look anemic by comparison.

The other holiday release wasn't as lucky as Ghosts, however — WB corporate sibling New Line's Bones, starring recently-busted rapper Snoop Dogg, had a dismal ninth-place showing. Still, Snoop did much better than another singer-turned-actor, N*SYNC's Lance Bass, whose romantic comedy On The Lins came in eleventh.

Last weekend's top two movies, From Hell and Riding in Cars With Boys, had sophomore sessions that gave them the appearance of flashes in the pan for stars Johnny Depp and Drew Barrymore. Even so, they had a lot more staying power that Robert Redford's The Last Castle, which fell from fifth to eighth.

These films — and the rest of the field — should brace themselves for a pummeling next weekend, when Monsters Inc., the latest animated comedy from the Toy Story team at Pixar, is likely to eat them (and John Travolta's Domestic Disturbance and Jet Li's The One) for lunch.

Andrew Johnston is a film critic and associate editor at US WEEKLY magazine.