By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Bringing Down the House," a comedy starring Academy Awards (news - web sites) host Steve Martin and Oscar nominee Queen Latifah, ruled the North American box office for the third weekend in a row, but the Iraqi war sent overall business to its lowest level in almost two months.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, hours before the 75th Academy Awards are due to take place in Hollywood at 5:30 p.m. PST, "Bringing Down the House" sold about $16.2 million worth of tickets for the three days beginning March 21.

The total for the Walt Disney Co. release rose to $83.4 million, and company executives hope it will reach the $120 million-$130 million range. The last film to top the box office for three consecutive weekends was "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" in December/January.

Martin stars as an uptight lawyer whose dull existence is enlivened by a fugitive played by Queen Latifah (Oscar-nominated for "Chicago").

Combined ticket sales for the top 12 films tallied $84 million, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The total represented a 7 percent decline from last weekend and a 29 percent slide from the year-ago period. The last time receipts were this low was the Jan. 24-26 weekend when the top 12 amounted to $80 million.

Potential moviegoers stayed at home, "searching their hearts and being with their families," said Rick Sands, chief operating officer of Disney's Miramax Films unit.

NEW RELEASES TAKE A KNOCK

Miramax released one of this weekend's four new releases, the female-targeted Gwyneth Paltrow comedy "View from the Top," which opened at No. 4 with a modest $7.6 million.

The top new entrant was "Dreamcatcher," a horror film starring Morgan Freeman. It opened at No. 2 with $15.3 million, in line with the diminished expectations of its studio, Warner Bros. Pictures. The film's core male audience was likely distracted by televised coverage of the war.

"I think we lost a couple of million dollars, but it's hard to tell," said Dan Fellman, president of distribution at the AOL Time Warner Inc. -owned studio.

Potential male moviegoers also stayed away from "Boat Trip," a cruise-ship comedy that opened at No. 10 with $3.7 million. The film, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., was released by closely held Artisan Entertainment (news - external web site).

Among movies already in release, the male-skewing ones took the biggest hits. "The Hunted," an action drama starring Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro, fell two places to No. 5 in its second weekend with $6.6 million, a 51 percent drop. The film was released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc .

The Bruce Willis military thriller, "Tears of the Sun," tumbled four places to No. 8 in its third weekend with $4.5 million, down 48 percent. It was released by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp (news - web sites). .

The fourth new arrival was the low-budget Disney cartoon "Piglet's Big Movie," which bowed at No. 7 with $6.1 million, which studio executives were happy with.

Leading Oscar contender "Chicago" was the least affected by the depressed conditions. The Miramax musical slipped one place to No. 6 in its 13th weekend with $6.2 million, down just 12 percent. The film's total rose to $134 million.

With 13 nominations, including picture and director, the film is the odds-on Oscar favorite. If indeed it does snag the top prizes, Miramax's Sands hoped it would finally draw the hitherto-resistant demographic of males under 25, a group not known for embracing period musicals with messages.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office for the March 21-23 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

1. Bringing Down the House .......... $16,204,468

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $83,349,134

2. Dreamcatcher .......... $15,027,423

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $15,027,423

3. Agent Cody Banks .......... $9,227,614

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $26,531,584

4. View from the Top .......... $7,009,513

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $7,009,513

5. The Hunted .......... $6,510,154

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $23,390,799

6. Chicago .......... $6,176,021

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $134,014,534

7. Piglet's Big Movie .......... $6,097,758

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $6,097,758

8. Tears of the Sun .......... $4,435,782

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $37,921,775

9. Old School .......... $3,904,358

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $66,960,634

10. Boat Trip .......... $3,815,075

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $3,815,075

Reuters/Variety

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A new star was born and an old one returned to favor but the consensus in Hollywood a day after its big Oscars (news - web sites) night was that the "Chicago" fire did not burn that bright, money doesn't always buy success and really not that much has changed.

But at long last there is peace among the studios that were waging expensive campaigns to earn top Oscar honors.

More important, perhaps, Hollywood learned the campaigns don't always work as expected -- a notable failure being Miramax's campaign to win Oscars for Martin Scorsese (news) as best director and Renee Zellweger (news) as best actress.

Adrien Brody (news), 29, is the new star after winning his Oscar for best actor in Holocaust drama "The Pianist" in which he played Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman who survived the Holocaust by sheer will, luck and the kindness of strangers -- including a Nazi officer.

Onstage, Brody gave last year's best actress winner, Halle Berry (news), a big kiss before launching into a heartfelt acceptance speech that ended when he asked the audience to pray for peace and a swift resolution to the Iraq (news - web sites) war. He brought the house to its feet.

It was the kiss and the speech that earned Brody Monday morning kudos.

"His speech was great. It captured whole gamut of emotions, and I really think that stood out," said Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. president Chris McGurk.

The old star returned to favor was "The Pianist's" director Roman Polanski (news) who found the spotlight by winning best director "He's an incredibly gifted and disciplined director ... He deserves the recognition," Brody said.

In 1978, Polanski fled the United States after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old and faces prison if he returns.

NOT SO CLEAN SWEEP

Heading into the night, movie musical "Chicago" held 13 nominations and was the front-runner to sweep the competition.

But when Brody won over heavily favored Daniel Day-Lewis (news) in "Gangs of New York" and Jack Nicholson (news) in "About Schmidt," there seemed to be something fresh in the air of the Kodak theater in Hollywood where the show was held.

In the end, "Chicago," earned six Oscars to three for "The Pianist." Drama "Frida" scored in two categories, music and original score." "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" won in sound editing and visual effects.

"There were a lot of great movies this year, and I think the awards reflected that fact," said MGM's McGurk. Indeed, what most sources said was that this year's awards prove what has always been the rule in Hollywood: good movies tend to rise above all the marketing and all the hype to find their audience.

MOORE IS LESS?

MGM backed Michael Moore (news)'s anti-gun documentary "Bowling for Columbine," which earned Moore an Oscar that will boost sales of the DVDs, videos and pay-per-view television down the road. The financial value of winning an Oscar, mainly, is in sales of products in ancillary markets, not at box offices.

Moore became one of the night's most controversial speakers when, onstage, he attacked President Bush (news - web sites) and his decision to send troops to war in Iraq. His speech was met with some cheers but mostly loud boos.

"I think what he wanted to say was very right for him, but I think he started it off just too fast and should have built into what he was going to say," said Martin Richards, the producer of "Chicago."

For his own part, Richards said he held fast to the idea of peace, but that the Oscars were not the place to make a speech about the war or wear a peace sign pin, as many stars did.

"I did that when I was a kid in Vietnam, and I was sorry for that later -- not about the war, but about the guys that had to be there," he said.

The biggest loser of the night may have been the ABC television network which saw ratings for the show decline to their lowest level ever with just over 33 million people tuning in, 20 percent below last year.

Still, there were winners, not the least of which was Brody who along with his award, slapped a long, slow kiss on beautiful actress Halle Berry. Absent "The Pianist," it may just have been his best job of the year.

By Christopher Michaud

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Maybe they should just rename these awards "the Madonnas."

Madonna (news - web sites) and director-husband Guy Ritchie (news) "Swept Away" the competition with their widely reviled box office bomb of the same name at the 23rd annual Razzie awards on Saturday which "honor" the worst of the worst in Hollywood.

The Razzies are traditionally awarded a day before the Oscars (news - web sites), Hollywood's highest honors which are set for Sunday.

"Swept Away," a remake of Italian director Lina Wertmuller (news)'s 1974 classic about a bourgeois woman shipwrecked in the Mediterranean with her yacht's communist cook, swept the Razzies with nods for worst film, worst performance by an actress, worst remake, worst screen couple (Madonna and co-star Adriano Giannini) and worst director Ritchie.

The first cinematic collaboration between the aging pop star and the British director also suffered the ignominious distinction of being the Razzie's lowest-grossing worst film ever, having "earned" a whopping $598,645 in box office receipts, the Razzies award givers said.

Actually Madonna, who can now boast a collection of five worst actress Razzies in her curio cabinet -- not to mention having been crowned worst actress of the century -- had to share the honor this year with fellow pop star Britney Spears (news).

For her screen debut Spears chose "Crossroads," in which as critics noted she dug deep into her creative vault to transform every fiber of her being into her character of ... an aspiring pop star.

"Crossroads" opens with Spears' character dancing in her underwear to Madonna's "Open Your Heart to Me." So now they have another bond.

WORST ORIGINAL SONG

Spears also grabbed the worst original song honors for "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" from the film.

"Swept Away"'s five "wins" tied the mark for most Razzies set by such unforgettable movie train wrecks as "Mommie Dearest," "The Post Man," "Wild Wild West" and "Freddy Got Fingered."

Seemingly on a roll, Razzie voters also saw fit to bestow its worst supporting actress award on Madonna for her fleeting cameo in the James Bond flick "Die Another Day."

The Razzies, formally administered by the non-profit Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, did not reserve its brickbats for pop stars who think they're actresses, of course.

Italian actor/director and past Oscar winner Roberto Benigni (news) ("Life is Beautiful") apparently gave new meaning to the term wooden acting with his poorly dubbed folly "Pinocchio," which apparently even children didn't want to see during its abortive Christmas release.

Even Hollywood superpower George Lucas (news) and his "Star Wars" cash cow franchise did not escape unscathed. His "disappointing fifth entry from a galaxy far, far too long," as the Razzie folks put it, "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones," snagged Razzies for Hayden Christensen (news) as worst supporting actor and worst screenplay for Lucas himself.

Winners were determined by ballots mailed to 563 Golden Raspberry Award Foundation members throughout 39 U.S. states and a dozen other countries.

The award itself is a handcrafted, golf-ball-sized raspberry atop a mangled reel of Super 8 film. Spray-painted gold, it is said to have an estimated street value of $4.89.

But that, of course, doesn't account for eBay.

John L.:  I still don't like Chicago the Movie even though it just won best picture.  Unbelievable.  Adrien Brody is lucky that Halle Berry is not working for him because he would be up on sexual harassment charges.  Michael Moore was the highlight, even though his views on the whole George Bush and attacking Iraq are a bit misguided.  Bush is just doing his job in protecting this country from "evildoers."  Stick to looking for Roger Smith.  Madonna will always be a Razzies staple no matter what she does.  I see an honorary Madonna Razzie Lifetime Achievement Award for female acting.  J-Lo might be up for that if she makes too many movies with Ben Affleck.  Bringing Down the House is number one for 3 weeks in a row and has made Miss Dana Owens a household name.  The box office is sort of at a holding pattern waiting for the big May releases to come out.  Hopefully, this site will be back to normal by then.