By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sony's Adam Sandler (news)-Jack Nicholson (news) comedy "Anger Management" was all the rage at the weekend boxoffice with a $42.2 million debut, according to final data issued on Monday.

The movie's total came in $2.3 million lower than distributor Sony had estimated Sunday, but it remained the best gross ever for an April debut, beating the previous record of $36.1 million set last year by "The Scorpion King."

BOX OFFICE RECOVERS

Even though "Anger Management" ate into other films' receipts, it helped the overall box office end a four-weekend losing streak caused by the war in Iraq (news - web sites). The top 12 films grossed $86.9 million, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, up 6.3 percent from the same weekend last year when "Changing Lanes" opened at No. 1 with $17.1 million.

Last weekend's champion, the Colin Farrell (news) thriller "Phone Booth," was a distant No. 2 with $7.5 million for the weekend and $26.6 million for its first 10 days. It was released by Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group Inc .

Warner Bros.' teen comedy "What a Girl Wants," starring children's TV personality Amanda Bynes (news), slipped a notch to No. 3 in its second weekend with $6.7 million. Its 10-day total stands at $20.4 million. The studio is owned by AOL Time Warner Inc .

Walt Disney Co.'s hit Steve Martin (news) comedy "Bringing Down the House" rose one place to No. 4 with $4.6 million in its sixth weekend, as its total rose to $117.7 million. The No. 5 slot went to New Line Cinema's Vin Diesel (news) drugs drama "A Man Apart" with $4.5 million, down two places from its debut last weekend; its 10-day haul rose to $18.3 million. New Line is also a unit of AOL Time Warner.

"CORPSES" LOOKING LIVELY

The top 10 contained one other new release, the low-budget horror movie "House of 1,000 Corpses," which opened at No. 7 with $3.4 million from just 595 theaters. (By contrast, "Anger Management" was playing in 3,551 theaters.)

The R-rated film, which proudly advertises its homicidal, cannibalistic and satanic nature, was originally supposed to open more than two years ago. But its original distributor, Universal Pictures, was so appalled by its violence that it returned the rights to its director, rock star Rob Zombie.

The film was eventually picked up Canadian studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. , which said it was thrilled with the opening.

In the limited release, MTV Films' suburban drama "Better Luck Tomorrow," starring a cast of young Asian-Americans, earned almost $400,000 from just 13 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. A spokeswoman for distributor Paramount Classics said screenings in many locations grossed more than "Anger Management." The $250,000 film will expand to about a dozen markets next weekend. MTV and Paramount are units of Viacom Inc .

With next week punctuated by the Passover and Easter holidays, two wide releases will debut on Wednesday -- the martial arts thriller "Bulletproof Monk" and the Latino comedy "Chasing Papi" -- and two on Friday -- the comedy "Malibu's Most Wanted" and the family adventure "Holes."

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office for the April 11-13 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

1. Anger Management .......... $42.2 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $42.2 million.

2. Phone Booth .......... $7.6 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $26.7 million

3. What a Girl Wants .......... $6.3 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $20 million

4. Bringing Down the House .......... $4.5 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $117.6 million.

5. A Man Apart .......... $4.46 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $18.3 million

6. Head of State .......... $4 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $30.9 million

7. House of 1,000 Corpses .......... $3.5 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $3.5 million

8. The Core .......... $3.3 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $25.8 million

9. Chicago .......... $3.2 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $156.9 million

10. Basic .......... $2.1 million

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $23.7 million

Reuters/VNU

John L.: After several weeks of lackluster box office, Adam Sandler has come to the rescue again with another monster opening weekend. He had slacked off with his last 2 movies, Punch Drunk Love and Eight Crazy Nights, but with the easily accessible premise of Anger Management as well as the manic looks of Jack Nicholson, anything less than $30 million opening weekend would have been a disappointment. Sandler has one of the most loyal fan bases, but he has to do movies that play to his everyman strengths to attract the large audience. When he gets away from that he falters, but this time it looks like he chose the right project. Nicholson has his most success when he plays odd characters, and the one in Anger Management appears to follow that mold so people showed up. The other new movie of the week is actually about 3 years old and it is called House of a 1000 Corpses directed by Rob Zombie. It was deemed too bizarre and brutal to release, but Lions Gate Films has decided to take a chance on it. Full reviews of AM and HOATC to follow.

Top 10 things that make me angry: 10: After pouring my cereal in a bowl, I find out I am all out of milk. 9: Getting a phone call just as my favorite television show is about to start. 8: MTV's TRL not playing the whole music video without any interruption. 7: A fast food place not putting napkins in my bag. 6: The cash register going on the fritz on the person right in front of me at the supermarket. 5: Blue ketchup. 4: Gwyneth Paltrow movies 3: Terrorism in the United States 2: People who are more than a half hour late to something they scheduled And the number one thing that makes me angry: My computer crashes causing me to be unable to update my website for 2 months. In the new movie Anger Management, Adam Sandler plays Dave Buznik who seems to have problems playing well with others. Ever since he was a kid, he has been the victim of bullies and pretty girls thinking he was a dork. As an adult he tries to appease everyone around him so as not to get into conflicts. One day while on an airplane, a flight attendant takes too long to get him some headphones leading to him having a verbal outburst at the on board security. So as not to go to jail for a year, he gets court ordered to participate in an anger management course which just so happens to be taught by the great Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson). From there, hilarity ensues as Dave tries to cope with Buddy's unorthodox anger control techniques that tend to more often than not lead to more and more intense anger until it gets to be quite physical. The movie is an excuse to get 2 of the biggest movie stars out there to interact with each other and for the most part the chemistry between Sandler and Nicholson is quite good. It is genuinely funny to see them go at each other in the ways that they do. There are surprises here and there when certain things Buddy does seem to not work, but in reality it is all part of the multi part plan. Twists and turns occur that defy some logic, but they all support the comedy that is presented. The supporting cast of the movie is alright, but they are given very little to do. Marisa Tomei is quite the cutie in this as Sandler's supportive girlfriend. It would be nice to see Tomei be the focal point of a movie more often as she is a very engaging actress with one of the prettiest smiles in movies. She has gone from being a student on the Cosby Show spinoff "A Diffrerent World" to winning an Oscar for "My Cousin Vinny" to being the obsession of George Costanza on "Seinfeld" to the princess of independent films to the sidekick love interest in movies like "What Women Want" and now Anger Management. It would have been interesting to see the roles reversed and give Tomei a chance to play the lead in a movie like this. Oh well. The rest of the characters are pretty much extended cameos, but the star cameos are quite extensive. The most significant is John Tuturro, who is becoming a regular in Sandler movies. He was the only good thing in last year's Mr. Deeds, and his crazy anger class guy, Chuck, is not as good, but still amusing. There are at least six actors who show up in this movie that will give you a double take. I won't ruin the surprise since some are really good. Adam Sandler is definitely maturing in his movie roles as the days of Water Boy and Happy Gilmore seem to be over as Sandler now prefers to play an average guy with a hidden edge that pops up when provoked. It seems that every one of his movies has to have a moment where someone is aggressively tackled like they were a football player dummy. Sandler is dropping the baby voice and going for more of the soft spoken nice guy vibe. Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper were sick that day I guess. Anger management is a forgettable film, but as you watch it it will keep you entertained enough. Nothing bad enough to not recommend. Final Review: 2 1/2 stars out of 5; 6 out of 10; B-; thumbs up.

Gosh darnit, I love horror movies. I like the suspense, the gore, the chase, the violence, the tension, the rudeness, the crudeness, the stupidity, and even sometimes the humor. Universal, Hammer, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Tom Savini, and various others have thrilled me all my life. Most of the time, horror lets me down, and Rob Zombie's House of a 1000 Corpses is one of those movies that falls short on so many levels that it may be the saddest movie of the year. This movie has become legend over the last 2 and a half years as the big movie studios refused to release it. The movie was too depraved. No character was sympathetic. In these ever changing times, no one would want to see a movie as disturbing as 1000 Corpses. Rob Zombie, the former frontman of White Zombie, wrote and directed this film and eventually took control of how it would be released until Lion's Gate decided to give it a chance to be seen. The plot is about 2 couples, on a road trip across America looking for crazy side of the road sites to write about. They stop over at a Gas and Chicken side show establishment run by Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig). Spaulding is a nutcase who wears full clown makeup with costume seemingly 24/7. If you mess with him, he will rip your heart out, literally, and if you take the time to get to know him, he might just tell you a story about Dr. Satan. Well, the four kids decided to get the Dr. Satan info, and during a tunnel of love type ride, the Captain tells the story of this evil doctor who did experiments on the mentally deranged in order to create a race of superhumans. Whatever became of the MD is unknown, but there is a good chance he hangs out just up the road from this Gas & Food place. Since there would be no movie if the four intrepid travelers did not look for DS, the four decide to find out the truth. One things leads to the other and all four end up in the proverbial house of a 1000 (give or take a few hundred) corpses controlled by about five relatively insane people. What goes on in this house is fairly disturbing like decapitations, dismemberment, disembowelment, lobotomies, shootings, rape, and even a song and dance routine. All four of our heroes meet with various forms of torture and not all get out alive. The acting in a movie like this is unimportant. One just has to show up and let the story carry the performance. In fact, the worst the acting the more endearing a horror film is. HOATC has elements of better films of this type like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and even Rocky Horror Picture Show, but its blatancy with the homages takes away from any horror or suspense the movie tries to do. The family living in the house is crazy just because they have to be. Otis, played by Bill Moseley is the looniest and most difficult to watch. He just enjoys torturing people, period. No attempt at reasoning is given. Moseley played almost the exact same character in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, but in that the metal plate in his head justified his actions, but in this, there is no explanation given. He looks lie Riff Raff from the Rocky Horror movie but just a bit more intense. Karen Black is the matriarch of the family of horrors and she is disturbing to look at because I remember when she was attractive in the 1970s. I was mostly bored by her performance. Sheri Moon is interesting as Baby, the pretty daughter with a mean streak that goes from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. She can't act, but her crazy laughs and violent side are somewhat interesting as is the crack of her ass when she stands up in one scene. My favorite member of the family is Tiny played by sometime Howard Stern Radio Show guest/wackpacker, Matthew "Bigfoot" McGrory. He is over 7 feet tall, hunched over and even without makeup disturbing to look at. He has no lines of dialogue and he wears a mask throughout most of the movie, but he has the funniest moment in the movie when an imprisoned girl asks to be released. The response he gives is unexpected. Everything is here to make a fairly competent horror movie similar to the extreme ones made in the 1970s and early 80s, but nothing really new is added here. It has all been seen before and nothing is done to change up the formula. Near the end of the movie a Dr. Satan superhuman (I guess) goes on attack, but it is all for naught. It is never established if this being could kick some ass as it never gets a chance to. The direction is odd as Zombie likes to mix in old horror movie clips with slow motion action, and negative imaging to create a dark mood. Yawn, just show the damn movie Rob, and stop being fancy. There is quite a bit of violence and 10 or 20 years ago it would have been considered too disturbing for even the average horror movie fan. Due to the hype of the disturbing images, the movie fails to be as depraved as it was rumored to be. If you can deal with the brain buffet ending of Hannibal, you will be able to handle HOATC. An increase in the onscreen mayhem would have helped make this movie more interesting. Tiny is the only one who gets an explanation for his motivations while the others just show up nuts. The Dr. Satan character really only shows up in 2 main scenes and is disappointing in his appearance and execution. The four heroes of the movie are forgettable and unsympathetic. I still can't remember which girl was which. If they had been more interesting, then the things they go through would have felt more dramatic. The horror movies of the 1970s were technically just as bad as this movie, but in their day nothing like that had been shown on a wide scale. I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre are all very disturbing deranged movies that only a few of us can handle. They are also movies that should not be remade as they are just too dark to handle for today's conservative audiences. Overall, House of a 1000 Corpses is one of the worst movies of the year and a great disappointment. Rob Zombie makes decent heavy metal music that I frequently enjoy. He is also a pretty level headed guy believe it or not who likes to play with dead things. Add about 10 minutes to this movie that gives some character background, have about 2 completely insane moments of violence, and show Dr. Satan's great creation kick at least one guys ass, and then the movie could be something worth seeing. As it stands now, House of a 1000 Corpses should have stayed dead in the vault. Final Review: 1 1/2 stars out of 5; 3 1/2 out of 10; D+; thumbs down. It's a new millennium Rob, story does matter.