Silent Hill scared up an estimated $20.3 million to rank as the top attraction at the weekend box office. The frames other debuting fare rated good returns of $14.4 million for the thriller The Sentineland a less than euphoric $3.8 million for the satiric American Dreamz. Overall business dipped modestly from the prior weekend but against a double-digit upturn from 2005 business.

Screen Gems continued its enviable record for acquiring horror programmers and selling them to the public with Silent Hill. The image of a teenage school girl with an erased mouth provided sufficient intrigue to draw in the core young adult market and the numbers once again underlined why studios like the sort of genre fare that used to be the staple of independent distribution companies.

Last week’s leader Scary Movie 4 fell into second spot with $16.7 million and attested to the fact that there’s big made to be made from sending up the genre that has provided a big part of the movie industry’s fast food diet.

The Sentinel provided nourishment for devotees of the paranoia thriller with a plot about political chicanery and assassination. According to Friday exit polling that crowd was comprised of an audience more than 70% above the age of 30 while Silent Hill was luring a younger sect that preferred more visceral thrills.

Weekend business approached roughly $108 million that translated into an 11% erosion from seven days earlier. It was nonetheless a 16% improvement from last year when another political thriller -The Interpreter – was the higher scorer with a $22.8 million opening.

The parallels between American Dreamz and The Sentinel provided little benefit for the former film. Both yarns are driven by political assassination but whereas the Michael Douglas vehicle plays it straight, Dreamz weighs heavily on irony and humor and Americanz, based on theater tickets, have yet to appreciate the funny side of terrorism. It’s also fair to say that the comedy has a better defined political sensibility.

Holdover titles were largely experiencing fast commercial burns with the exception of family films and especially animated movies. Though its opening weekend was a disappointment, The Wild ebbed just 18% in its second exposure. But commercial fare is currently a very thin field headed for the exit as the May onslaught of commercial behemoths looms.

The Sundance-preemed Friends with Money capitalized on the momentart marketplace lull and expanded to about 1,000 theaters and fair returns of $3 million. However, it’s unlikely to equal the commercial record of Thank You for Smoking that is currently at $15.6 million and a $20 million theatrical finale.

Activity in the niches was generally tepid with Mexican import La Mujer de Mi Hermano folding in half from it opener and the expansion of The Notorious Bettie Page expanding to no better than modest results. Debuting titles that included the Australian drama Somersault and the American indie Standing Still failed to spark significant interest. In Canada, NFL playoffs prompted an English-Canadian launch for the biopic of legendary Habs iceman Maurice Richard. Its $200,000 box office was a good result but pales in comparison to the $5 million it grossed in Quebec late in 2005.

– by Leonard Klady

Top Domestic Releases: January 1 – April 20, 2006

Domestic Market Share: January 1 – April 20, 2006

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