‘Chainsaw’ gets the gross

While young adults powered the remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” to the top spot at the box office this weekend, a spate of films for more mature moviegoers carved up much of the rest of the audience share.

In estimates released Sunday, “Chainsaw” grossed $29.1 million. The R-rated film did best among moviegoers under 25, and the audience was half female. In its marketing campaign, New Line Cinema played up the film’s star, Jessica Biel (formerly of the television show “7th Heaven”).

“Young ladies seem to respond to the fear of it all,” said New Line’s head of marketing, Russell Schwartz. He added that the film turned out to be a strong “date movie.”

Only last year’s $36.5 million opening for “Red Dragon” beat out “Texas” for the highest October opening ever. Also doing well among under-25 moviegoers was “Kill Bill Vol. 1.” Miramax reported the Quentin Tarantino film grossed an estimated $12.5 million, drawing a mostly male crowd.

If the estimates prove correct, “Kill Bill” will have held up well in its second weekend, dropping only 43% from its debut. But it was unclear Sunday whether “Kill Bill” could claim bragging rights for the No. 2 box office slot. Studio estimates varied, with some giving second place to “Runaway Jury.”

Fox said its Gene Hackman-Dustin Hoffman courtroom drama opened at an estimated $12.1 million. Regardless of its ranking in the weekend box office hierarchy, “Runaway Jury’s” opening may have suffered from the unusual number of adult-targeted films out in the marketplace this weekend. Only “Mystic River,” which expanded into 1,467 theaters, held on strong, grossing $10.4 million over the weekend for a per-screen average of $7,059.

On a much smaller scale, Focus Features’ “Sylvia,” starring Gwyneth Paltrow, opened well in three theaters in New York and Los Angeles, grossing an estimated $56,132.

United Artists’ “Pieces of April” opened to a so-so showing of $48,000 in six theaters.

“The adult audience is really getting torn apart,” said Universal Focus’ head of distribution, Jack Foley. “Everybody is grabbing for this audience.” Universal’s expensive, adult-oriented dark comedy “Intolerable Cruelty” dropped 45% for an estimated gross of $6.9 million over the weekend.

That film, which cost about $60 million to make and at least $30 million to market, has only grossed $23 million so far. The studio gambled that its two stars -- Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney -- would be worth the investment.

Another disappointment this weekend was Disney’s “Veronica Guerin.” Despite a massive marketing campaign befitting a Jerry Bruckheimer production, that movie only grossed an estimated $603,000 on 472 screens.

The film, directed by Joel Schumacher (“Phone Booth”), failed to garner the strong reviews it needed to break through the clutter. Disney officials were not available for comment Sunday.

Still, the overall box office was strong this weekend, with the top 10 films coming in at $101.5 million -- 8% higher than last week and 50% higher than the same weekend last year, according to Nielsen EDI, a box-office tracking firm.

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(Begin Text of Infobox)

Preliminary results based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total (millions)

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*--* The Texas Chainsaw Massacre $29.1 $29.1

Kill Bill Vol.1 12.5 43.3

Runaway Jury 12.1 12.1

School of Rock 11.3 55.2

Mystic River 10.4 13.4

Good Boy! 9.0 25.8

Intolerable Cruelty 6.9 23.1

Out of Time 4.1 35.3

Under the Tuscan Sun 3.4 33.7

The Rundown 2.8 44.6

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Source: Nielsen EDI Inc

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Los Angeles Times