‘Ghosts’ Doesn’t Scare Off ‘K-PAX’

“K-PAX,” a quirky tale of a mental patient who claims to be a visitor from a far-off solar system, topped the weekend box office, grossing $17.2 million, a surprisingly strong showing for a film with a curious title and story line that was difficult to market.

Coming in second just in time for Halloween was “Thirteen Ghosts,” a remake of William Castle’s 1960 ghost tale, which debuted with $15.2 million.

“ ‘K-PAX’ and ‘Thirteen Ghosts’ split the audience and took a pretty good share of the gross,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. “The success of ‘K-PAX’ is a testament to two things--good marketing on the part of Universal Pictures and the appeal of [the film’s stars] Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. With that title, it’s hard to market a film like that. It’s amazing that it did that kind of business. This is a film that could have been lost.”

Released in only 847 theaters, rapper Snoop Dogg’s “Bones” had a modest opening of $2.8 million for a 10th-place finish.

Meanwhile, the romantic comedy “On the Line,” starring Lance Bass and Joey Fatone of ‘N Sync, grossed only $2.3 million on 900 screens to debut out of the Top 10.

Weekend Box Office

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Movie (Studio) Three-day gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Total (millions) Average Release 1. “K-PAX” $17.2 2,541 1 (Universal) $17.2 $6,775 2. “Thirteen Ghosts” $15.2 2,781 1 (Warner Bros.) $15.2 $5,453 3. “From Hell” $6.02 2,334 2 (Fox) $20.7 $2,579 4. “Riding in Cars With Boys” $6.01 2,770 2 (Sony/Columbia) $19.1 $2,170 5. “Training Day” $5.1 2,328 4 (Warner Bros.) $65.0 $2,207 6. “Bandits” $5.0 3,015 3 (MGM) $32.1 $1,674 7. “Serendipity” $3.8 2,203 4 (Miramax) $40.0 $1,730 8. “The Last Castle” $3.6 2,270 2 (DreamWorks) $13.0 $1,597 9. “Corky Romano” $3.0 2,001 3 (Disney/Touchstone) $20.2 $1,498 10. “Bones”* $2.8 847 1 (New Line) $3.6 $3,334

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* Opened Wednesday

Source: Exhibitor Relations Co.