Weekend box office

When actual Sunday figures were tallied, “Anger Management” came in a couple million dollars less than Sony Pictures projected. With $42.2 million, though, it’s still the biggest April opener and the best opening for either of its stars, Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler.

The record-breaking comedy may have been the biggest news, but “Ghosts of the Abyss,” James Cameron’s digitally shot 3-D Imax chronicle of his return to the Titanic, performed impressively -- on bigger screens. The Disney film brought in $1.4 million in 97 theaters (52 Imax or other large-format film process and 44 specially fitted for 35-millimeter 3-D projection). The documentary broke records at the Universal City Imax, where the film took in $20,507 on Saturday. The previous highest single-day gross for that Imax theater was $13,000 for the blown-up and re-edited “The Lion King.”

Paramount Classics’ “Better Luck Tomorrow,” starring and written, produced and directed by Asian Americans, grossed $360,772, averaging a hefty $27,775 per theater in 13 sites. The company plans to expand the MTV Films acquisition this weekend to 23 theaters in the U.S. and three in Canada from current venues in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

-- R. Kinsey Lowe

*--* MOVIE 3-DAY GROSS TOTAL VENUES AVG/VENUE WEEKS (MILLIONS )

1. Anger Management $42.2 $42.2 3,551 $11,890 1 (Sony/Revolution)

2. Phone Booth $7.6 $26.7 2,489 $3,061 2 (Fox)

3. What a Girl Wants $6.2 $20.0 2,960 $2,121 2 (Warner Bros.)

4. Bringing Down $4.5 $117.6 2,830 $1,591 6 the House (Disney)

5. A Man Apart $4.45 $18.3 2,495 $1,787 2 (New Line)

6. Head of State $4.0 $30.9 2,256 $1,765 3 (DreamWorks)

7. House of 1,000 $3.5 $3.5 595 $5,816 1 Corpses (Lions Gate)

8. The Core $3.3 $25.8 3,019 $1,095 3 (Paramount)

9. Chicago $3.2 $156.9 2,114 $1,517 16 (Miramax)

10. Basic $2.1 $23.7 2,246 $937 3 (Sony)

*--*

Source: Nielsen EDI