By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In torpid trading at the North American box office, "Stuart Little 2" and "Road to Perdition" tied at No. 1, while Harrison Ford's submarine drama "K:19 -- The Widowmaker" was torpedoed in its first outing.

The two champs each grossed a modest $15.6 million for the three days beginning July 19, according to estimates issued Sunday by their respective studios, Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks. Final data will be issued Monday. The last time the No. 1 movie grossed such a low figure was in February, when "Queen of the Damned" opened with $14.8 million.

"Stuart Little 2," a sequel to the hit 1999 talking-mouse movie, was a new release, while the Tom Hanks gangster drama "Road to Perdition" bowed at No. 2 last weekend. Along with the other two rookies, "K:19" and seventh-ranked spider horror "Eight Legged Freaks," sales for "Stuart Little" disappointed.

After two weeks at No. 1, the sci-fi comedy "Men in Black II" (Columbia) slipped to No. 3 with $15 million, while Ford's pricey "K:19" (Paramount) opened at No. 4 with $13.1 million. The Adam Sandler comedy "Mr. Deeds" (Columbia) held steady at No. 5 with $7.3 million in its fourth weekend.

Following six consecutive weekends of year-on-year gains, ticket sales for the top 12 films tumbled about 22 percent from the year-ago period when "Jurassic Park III" opened at No. 1 with $50.8 million, said tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

Studio executives said a crush of new titles did not help matters, with films like "Perdition" and "K:19" targeted at the same older-skewing audience. Overall business this year is still outpacing last year's record trading.

"ROAD" PAVED WITH GOLD

Box office analyst Gitesh Pandya at boxofficeguru.com pointed to a lack of big "event" films targeted at teens and young adults, who make up the largest portion of summer moviegoers. But he expected business to improve dramatically with "Austin Powers in Goldmember" opening next weekend, "Signs" Aug. 2 and "XXX" Aug. 9.

The only bright spot was "Road to Perdition," whose 29 percent fall, was the slightest in the top 10. After two weekends, the Tom Hanks gangster saga has grossed $47.5 million. Despite boosting its theater count by 362 to 2,159, the Sam Mendes-directed "Perdition" is playing in far fewer locations than its rivals -- "Stuart Little" (3,255), "Men in Black II" (3,641), "K:19" (2,828) and "Mr. Deeds" (2,823).

"Stuart Little 2," which reportedly cost about $120 million to make on account of its special effects, opened on par with its predecessor. Still rival studios had expected it to open north of $20 million.

"We would have liked it to be bigger," said Jeff Blake, Columbia's president of worldwide marketing and distribution.

He declined to reveal his target, but hoped support from family audiences would underpin grosses over the next few weeks. Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp ( news - web sites), controlled about one-third of the market, Blake estimated.

"Stuart Little 2," directed by Rob Minkoff, stars Geena Davis and English actor Hugh Laurie as the adoptive parents of the sharp-dressed title character. The original film ended up with $140 million domestically.

SUB SINKS

Hopes were also high for "K:19 -- The Widowmaker," a $100 million project developed by Intermedia Films, a unit of Germany's IM Internationalmedia AG. However Intermedia offset the "lion's share" of the cost by pre-selling foreign rights, said Jere Hausfater, the company's president of worldwide distribution and acquisitions.

Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. is handling distribution for North America and select foreign territories. Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen said he had hoped the film would open in the high-teens-to-$20 million range.

Citing strong exit polls and solid reviews, both he and Hausfater blamed the film's performance on the overall market. They hoped adults would turn up in the next few weeks.

The fact-based story stars Ford as a Russian submarine commander who struggles to prevent a nuclear explosion on his cursed craft. Irish actor Liam Neeson co-starred; Kathryn Bigelow directed.

The film is on track to be one of the worst openings for Ford, who turned 60 earlier this month. Among recent releases, his 1999 flop "Random Hearts" opened with $13 million.

"Eight Legged Freaks," a low-budget film starring David Arquette, had pulled in $9.3 million since its Wednesday opening. Warner Bros. distribution president Dan Fellman said the tally was disappointing, but he declined to say by how much. Warner Bros. is a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. The film was directed by New Zealand rookie Ellory Elkayem.

The 19-day total for "Men in Black II" rose to $158.6 million. Columbia's Blake said the film had an "excellent chance" of breaking $200 million; the 1997 original ended up with $250 million. "Mr. Deeds" has $107.6 million after 24 days, and should crack $125 million, Blake said.

Reuters/Variety

The top movies in North America -- July 19-21

Mon Jul 22, 5:48 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the July 19-21 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

Title Gross

1. Road to Perdition .......... $15,412,515

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $47,304,790

2. Stuart Little 2 .......... $15,115,152

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $15,115,152

3. Men in Black II .......... $14,552,335

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $158,127,629

4. K-19: The Widowmaker .......... $12,778,459

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $12,778,459

5. Reign of Fire .......... $7,317,994

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $29,246,331

6. Mr. Deeds .......... $7,312,128

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $107,630,816

7. Eight Legged Freaks .......... $6,485,458

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $9,080,158

8. Halloween: Resurrection .......... $5,520,536

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $21,952,979

9. Lilo & Stitch .......... $ 4,973,660

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $128,431,916

10. The Crocodile Hunter .......... $4,667,895

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $18,726,625

Reuters/Variety

John L.:  Slow week with no movie grabbing the attention even though the new entries to the top ten all had pretty good marketing campaigns.  Stuart Little 2 was the big hit that almost beat Tom and Paul, but after a close estimated weekend, it came in second place.   The first movie was very good and popular, and it is very surprising that it did not do better.  I believe the problem is that the trailer did not show anything that would encourage one to rush out and see it.  In fact it looked like they just re-released the first film.  It's video and DVD should make up in any lost box office.  Harrison Ford faltered big time with K19.  This is the shock of the week since Mr. Ford has one of the best box office track records in history with 3 franchises under his belt.  However, there were 2 things that hurt its chances.  One is no one cares about Cold War movies now days when the hot wars are more prescient.  The other is Ford's horrible Russian accent.  If I had to hear him yell "repurt!" again I might have burned my copies of Star Wars.  K19 is based on a true story so the ending is already known and nothing happened so the whole suspense of will the nuclear reactor explode on the sub is sort of negated.  These stories can work like they did for Apollo 13, but it has to be compelling enough to get people to sample it.  This is another one that will be a stronger rental.  Eight Legged Freaks looked like a fun B-horror movie romp that should have done about 2 or 3 times the business it ended up with this weekend.  The problem with this movie is the special effects.  The spiders looked too see gee eyed and nothing was being taken seriously.  Comedy in scary films is what is destroying the genre.  People go to see horror movies to be scared not to laugh at "Spiderman" jokes.  Also saying that the movie was made by the makers of "Godzilla" did not help any.  Like I said last week, people are getting ready to see Austin Powers in Goldmember and took this one off.  

REST OF THE TOP 10 IN 10:

1.    For those that don't know, perdition means Hell or damnation.

2.    One day Hollywood will make a movie that hit men are not glorified like the gangsters are all of the time.

3.    The funniest moment in Men In Black II comes near the end when Will Smith tries to get out of some tubing and it had me laughing for at least 10 minutes after it was over.  

4.    The least funniest moment in Men In Black II has to be Biz Markie's beat box technique.

5.    Dragons are cool, but it would help if the audience got to see them for more than 10 seconds at at time.

6.    Adam Sandler has officially made up for the poor performance of Little Nicky and Bulletproof.

7.    For those that don't care about the Halloween movies, another spoiler is that his boyhood home is burned down at the end.

8.    Since the latest Halloween movie did not do well, I guess the next movie may be called Halloween: The Final Chapter to finally end it.

9.    Lilo and Stitch shows that if your animation looks good you will make money, but the odd look of Powerpuff and Hey Arnold will only succeed on television.

10.    Oy, the Crock Australian invasion has been thwarted again just like in the Yahoo Serious Wars of 1988.

Next week's shagadelic return of Austin Powers will be fully reviewed on this site.  We shall see if Mike Myers will be groovy or if he should zip it.  Bye for now.