'Last Dance' Leaps to First at Box Office

Jan. 14 -- Tom Hanks' island drama Cast Away had to be topped sometime, but few could have predicted that a drama about a girl who's gotta dance would be the film to do it

Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, Save the Last Dance, which stars Julia Stiles as a dancer who'd hung up her toe shoes only to find renewed toe-tapping inspiration from the new boy in her life (Sean Patrick Thomas), surprised pundits by debuting at No. 1 with $24 million.

Antitrust Left in the Dust

Dance's gain was Antitrust's loss. The techno-conspiracy thriller, which is packed with good-looking stars Ryan Phillippe, Claire Forlani, and Rachael Leigh Cook, debuted in 12th place with $5.2 million, despite playing on 200 more screens than Dance.

Last MLK holiday, urban comedy Next Friday vied with teen romance Down to You (also starring Stiles), with Friday emerging victorious. This year, Save the Last Dance, a teen romance in an urban setting, proved a bigger draw than the poorly reviewed Double Take, a lowbrow comedy starring Orlando Jones and Eddie Griffin as a banker and con man who switch identities. It bowed in seventh place with $10 million.

Expanding into wider release, prestige pictures Thirteen Days, the Cuban Missile Crisis drama starring Kevin Costner, and Finding Forrester, the latest from director Gus Van Sant, moved up to fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Meanwhile, Cast Away, Traffic, and What Women Want continued strong, landing in the second, third, and fourth slots.

Ticket sales continue to improve on the same period last year, showing a 52 percent gain.

Final figures will be released Tuesday.