By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Vin Diesel action movie "XXX" led the North American box office for the second consecutive weekend with a three-day haul of $23 million, while Eddie Murphy posted one of the biggest flops of the year with his new film.

"The Adventures of Pluto Nash," in which Murphy plays a lunar nightclub owner, debuted at No. 10 with ticket sales of just $2.2 million since its Aug. 16 bow, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday. It reportedly cost about $100 million to make.

The movie has collected dust -- and bad industry buzz -- since its summer 2000 shoot. There were no advance screenings for critics, and Murphy did not do any publicity.

It was produced by Australia's Village Roadshow Ltd. and Castle Rock Entertainment, and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Castle Rock and Warner Bros, are units of AOL Time Warner Inc. Ron Underwood ("Mighty Joe Young") directed.

"It's a disappointment and we're moving forward," said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Bros.

The top 10 contained one other new release, the female surfing movie "Blue Crush," which opened at No. 3 with a solid $15.2 million. Budgeted at about $15 million, the teen-targeted drama was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Vivendi Universal SA.

With the lucrative summer moviegoing season drawing to a close, overall receipts fell for the fifth consecutive weekend when compared with the year-ago period. However, sales for 2002 are on track to beat last year's record take of $8.4 billion, thanks in part to a strong start to the summer.

'XXX' EYES THIRD WEEK ON TOP

Columbia Pictures' "XXX" will likely benefit from the malaise with a third round at No. 1 next weekend, industry observers said. The only new releases then are "Serving Sara," a romantic comedy starring Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley; "Simone," a Hollywood satire starring Al Pacino; and "Undisputed," a prison boxing drama starring Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames.

"XXX," with a 10-day haul of $84.9 million, is outpacing Diesel's 2001 breakthrough film "The Fast and the Furious," which had pulled in $78 million after the same time and ended up with $144 million, said Jeff Blake, Columbia's president of worldwide marketing and distribution.

Columbia is a unit of Sony Corp ( news - web sites).

The Mel Gibson supernatural thriller "Signs," which held steady at No. 2 with $19.5 million is also holding up well. After three weekends, it has pulled in $150 million. The film, written, directed and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, was released by Touchstone Pictures, a unit of Walt Disney Co.

"Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams," fell one spot to No. 4 in its second weekend with $11.6 million. After 12 days, its total stands at $45.7 million. The children's adventure was released by Disney's Miramax Films unit.

The super-spy comedy "Austin Powers in Goldmember" fell one spot to No. 5 in its fourth round with $8.7 million. The Mike Myers vehicle has a 25-day total of $183.9 million. It was released by AOL Time Warner's New Line Cinema unit.

'GREEK' HITS $53 MILLION

Sleeper hit "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" jumped two places to a new high of No. 6 in its 18th weekend. Its weekend haul of $5.8 million propelled its total to $52.9 million. The arthouse romantic comedy added 349 theaters for a total of 1,072 outlets, still only a third the reach of the films in the top five.

The film was released by IFC Films, a unit of Rainbow Media Holdings Inc., which is majority owned by Cablevision Systems Corp.

Elsewhere in the arthouse world, director Neil LaBute's adaptation of "Possession," starring Gwyneth Paltrow, opened in 270 theaters with a modest $1.6 million. It was released by Focus Features, a unit of Vivendi Universal.

"The Good Girl," a black comedy starring "Friends" actress Jennifer Aniston, grossed $828,000 after expanding to 56 theaters in 18 cities; it opened last weekend in four locations in New York and Los Angeles, and has grossed $1.2 million to date. It expands to 500 theaters nationally in two weeks, the Labor Day holiday weekend.

The film was released by Fox Searchlight, a unit of News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group Inc.

Paramount Classics' German-language culinary romance "Mostly Martha" debuted in two New York theaters with $42,000. Its screen average of $21,000 ranks as the highest in the Viacom Inc.-owned studio's history, a spokeswoman said. It expands to the top 10 markets next weekend.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the August 16-18 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

Title Gross

1. XXX .......... $22,111,421

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $83,963,506

2. Signs .......... $19,362,674

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $150,513,131

3. Blue Crush .......... $14,169,455

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $14,169,455

4. Spy Kids 2 .......... $11,520,234

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $45,608,793

5. Austin Powers in Goldmember .......... $8,729,738

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $183,897,219

6. My Big Fat Greek Wedding .......... $5,700,072

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $52,777,170

7. Blood Work .......... $4,807,836

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $15,310,030

8. Road to Perdition .......... $3,800,097

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $90,302,959

9. The Master of Disguise .......... $3,163,909

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $30,288,416

10. The Adventures of Pluto Nash .......... $2,182,900

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $2,182,900

Reuters/Variety

John L.:  Holy crap, did The Adventures of Pluto Nash crash on re-entry or what?  This movie will now be mentioned with such classics as Ishtar and Town and Country.  Congratulations Eddie, you now are on par with Warren Beatty's career.  Master of Disguise had received the worst reviews of the year before Nash came out.  At least Disguise was not a total box office disgrace.  Pluto Nash is now up there with such Murphy bombs like Holy Man and Best Defense.  Hopefully "I Spy" will do better for him so he wont have struck out three times in one year.  Blue Crush gets the "Bring It On" August female push and made a bit less than people hoped, but more than it probably should have.  Surf movies have not been popular since Frankie and Annette, so we will see in my full review how this film holds up.

BLUE CRUSH - FULL REVIEW

Blue Crush is a movie with no real plot.  It is all about surfing the next wave.  Oh there are 3 girls who live on their boards and ride the big one whenever they get time off from cleaning up vomit and throwing away condoms at the local 4 star hotel, but that is pretty much the extent of what happens in this mildly entertaining film.  Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), Eden (Michelle Rodriguez), and Lena (Sanoe Lake) are the three girls who live in Hawaii to be the best female surfers in the world.  The star is Bosworth who trains constantly to compete in the big Riding the Pipe competition that has been known to take a person's life.  In between the excellently filmed surfing sequences, she gets involved with a pro football quaterback on vacation with his team.  Their relationship never develops into anything very interesting and is just used to fill up running time.  In fact, it could have been removed and the story would have played out the same way.  The movie could have been a 10 or 15 minute special on surfing because the only interesting thing is to see how these people keep their balance while mother nature tries to flip them on their head.  The character of Anne Marie is the only one that gets any type of development while her friends are just their to cheer her on.  Kate Bosworth looks good as the girl trying to make the cover of "Surf Magazine."  Her performance is adequate for what she is given which is very little.  We know that her biggest problem is overcoming the accident she had where she rammed her head into a rock once while hangin' ten.  The amazing thing about the actress which is hard to pick up in the movie is that she has 2 different colored eyes.  Michelle Rodriguez who has potential to be a bigger star than she is, is wasted here as the best friend.  Her surfing time adds up to less than 2 minutes as she spends most of her water scenes on a jet ski.  A hint of jealousy is shown, but it never means anything as she is right there cheering Bosworth competing in the contest at the end.  No love interest, no back story, and very little attitude does nothing to help advance her acting career.  Sanoe Lake, who is a natural born Hawaiian does absolutely nothing in this movie to stand out. In a perfect world, she would have been the Anne Marie character, but I guess her mixed look was too odd for producers and casting directors to use as the lead.  All she does is cheer and smile a lot.  There is not one moment in the movie where we know why she is even in the movie.  Her time on the board is also limited to brief glimpses.  The native Hawaiians show up as either jerks or fellow hotel maids.  You only see them surf during the end credits where everyday people are attempting to lay down pipe.  The majority of the country has no experience in surfing.  Most only see it in movies or television specials.  A movie about that surfer dude lifestyle, especially from the female point of view could have been fascinating, but outside of the same shots of people nearly drowning and surfboards flying in the air after a blown spot, no real insight is given.  The final surf competition is not exciting because there is nothing really at stake.  The movie just wanders around aimlessly until there is nothing else to talk about or show.  If you saw the trailer, you saw the movie.  Final Review: 2 stars out of 5; 5 out of 10; C+; thumbs down.  Good looking film, badly written script.

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

1.    Vin Diesel better grab that $20 million paycheck as quick as he can since the underperforming xXx will cause him to not see that payday again.

2.    Signs is a major hit at the box office and I am very pleased since it is the best movie of the year.

3.    Spy movies are the genre of the Summer, and Spy Kids 2 is no Bourne Identity, but it looks to be putting Bad Company to shame.

4.    Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, Danny Devito, and Steven Spielberg are your big name cameos at the beginning of Goldmember that no one was supposed to mention.

5.    Sleeper hits are only sleepers when no one knows they are sleepers, and it seems Greek weddings are keeping many people awake at the cineplex.

6.    Poor Clint Eastwood may have to go back to just directing movies and not acting in them after Blood Work has hemorrhaged at the box office.

7.    Despite Road to Perdition's somewhat weak box office, it still shows that Tom Hanks is definitely a box office draw regardless of the tone of the movie.

8.    Master of Disguise received the second worst reviews of the year, and still has made $30 million which shows that Dana Carvey still has a following of some sort.

9.    The worst reviewed movie of the year is Eddie Murphy's The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

10.    Eddie Murphy's new movie may end up being the biggest box office bomb of all time putting Ishtar and Heaven's Gate to shame.

Three movies come out next week that I doubt many people will care to see.  Serving Sara, S1M0NE, and Undisputed will have a tough time cracking the top 5 let alone the top 10 next week.  It is all about the trailer and the premise, and those three don't seem to have what it takes to gather much interest.  Bye for now.