Weekend box office

Director Quentin Tarantino’s stylishly gory “Kill Bill Vol. 1” won the weekend box-office race with $22.1 million, but the strong showing for “School of Rock” is good news for Paramount Pictures, which has struggled to find hits this year. The schoolroom comedy starring Jack Black grossed $15.5 million in its second weekend, a drop of only 21%, bringing its total to $39.7 million. With strong week-to-week holds, and numbers like those, the studio is reasonably confident the film could gross close to $100 million by the end of its domestic run.

Robert Friedman, vice chairman and chief operating officer of Paramount Pictures, called the film a “four-quadrant movie,” studio-speak that means it appeals to older and younger audiences as well as male and female. “The fan base is broad,” Friedman said. “We’re getting kids and parents and Jack Black fans ... but we are also getting older adults.”

-- Robert W. Welkos

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*--* Movie 3-day Total Venues Average Weeks (Studio) Gross (Millions) Per Venue 1 Kill Bill Vol. 1 $22.1 $22.1 3,102 $7,121 1 (Miramax) 2 School of Rock $15.5 $39.7 2,929 $5,288 2 (Paramount) 3 Good Boy! (MGM) $13.1 $13.1 3,225 $4,064 1 4 Intolerable Cruelty $12.5 $12.5 2,564 $4,885 1 (Universal) 5 Out of Time (MGM) $8.6 $28.7 3,076 $2,793 2 6 House of the Dead $5.7 $5.7 1,520 $3,739 1 (Artisan) 7 The Rundown (Universal) $5.2 $40.3 2,823 $1,845 3 8 Under the Tuscan Sun $4.9 $28.3 1,701 $2,887 3 (Buena Vista) 9 Secondhand Lions (New $3.3 $35.4 2,563 $1,286 4 Line) 10 Lost in Translation $2.8 $18.1 882 $3,200 5 (Focus Features)

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Source: Exhibitor Relations Co.