"Pacifier" Sucks Up Big Bucks

That sucking sound you hear is Chili Palmer being whacked by The Pacifier.

Confounding box-office prognisticators, Vin Diesel's family farce had a bigger than expected debut, grossing $30.6 million to easily outdistance the weekend's other top newcomer, John Travolta's Be Cool. The Get Shorty sequel racked up $23.5 million in second place, according to final studio figures Monday.

Both films overcame mediocre to poor reviews, bringing the two headliners some of their best opening weekends.

Diesel had better premiere numbers for his all-action flicks XXX and The Fast and the Furious, but in his first comedy, as a Navy SEAL turned nanny to bunch of bratty kids, the bald-pated big guy crushed his previous film, last year's sci-fi debacle The Chronicles of Riddick. That Universal release earned $24.2 million and went south fast; in contrast, his new PG-rated Disney film played well across several demos and averaged a solid $9,758 at 3,131 sites.

Travolta, reprising the role of mobster Chili Palmer 10 years later, notched the biggest debut of his, just surpassing the $23.2 million open for 1997's Face/Off, in which he costarred with Nicolas Cage. Be Cool easily beat the $12.7 million for Get Shorty, though the original opened in fewer theaters in 1995 with a slightly better per-screen average--$7,922--before going on to gross a successful $72.1 million. MGM's PG-13 Be Cool, costarring Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer and The Rock, strutted into 3,216 sites, where it averaged a slightly less than expected $7,292.

Meanwhile, the weekend's third entry, The Jacket, quickly proved out of fashion with just $2.7 million in 10th place. Warner Independent Pictures' artsy time-shifting thriller, headlined by Oscar winner Adrien Brody and British babe Keira Knightley, averaged just $2,046 at 1,331 cinemas.

Despite slipping to third this weekend, Will Smith's Hitch definitely has staying power. The romantic comedy was down just 41 percent with $12.1 million, bringing its four-week tally to $138.4 million.

Last week's unlikely number one movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, also held up fairly well. The Lions Gate comedy, which already has a sequel in the works, dipped 50 percent, earning $11 million in fourth place and has now grossed $37 million.

Two other films that opened weakly last weekend, Cursed and Man of the House, crapped out, falling 60 percent and 61 percent into the seventh and eighth slots, respectively.

Meanwhile, top Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby still packed some punch. After taking home Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor trophies, Clint Eastwood's boxing drama added 255 sites to play at 2,350 and notched $8.2 million in fifth place, an uptick of 11 percent, to bring its 12-week purse to $76.6 million.

In very limited release, the winner was Gunner Palace, an R-rated Palm Pictures documentary about U.S. soldiers occupying one of the Hussein palaces in Iraq, with a per-screen average of $7,940 at eight sites for $63,520.

Miramax's PG-13 fractured-family love story Dear Frankie, at five sites, averaged $7,508 for $37,542; while the company's Italian import The Best of Youth, a drama about a lifetime journey of two brothers, debuted at just one site on Wednesday and earned $7,490.

Overall the top 12 films grossed $109.1 million, up 5 percent from last weekend, but down 17 percent from this time last year.

This is how the top 10 lined up, according to final data compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. The Pacifier, $30.6 million
2. Be Cool, $23.5 million
3. Hitch, $12.1 million
4. Diary of a Mad Black Woman, $11 million
5. Million Dollar Baby, $8.1 million
6. Constantine, $6.1 million
7. Cursed, $3.9 million
8. Man of the House, $3.5 million
9. Because of Winn-Dixie, $3.2 million
10. The Jacket, $2.7 million

(Originally published Mar. 6, 2005 at 5:35 p.m. PT.)