By Sarah Tippit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Bringing Down the House," a comedy starring Oscar nominee Queen Latifah in a spoof on race relations, was the No. 1 movie for the second straight weekend at the North American box office, according to studio estimates issued Sunday.

"House," Walt Disney Co.'s lively satire of racism in America that also stars Steve Martin (news), grossed $22.4 million in Friday-through-Sunday ticket sales, according to industry box office service Exhibitor Relations, down 28 percent from the March 7-9 period.

Sales may be down but as industry watchers had predicted, "House" seemed to benefit from all the Oscar buzz generated by Latifah's nomination as best supporting actress in the musical "Chicago." The 2003 Academy Awards (news - web sites) will be handed out next Sunday and, as is often the case, nominated films or stars from nominated films see increased box office business even in the face of new competition.

True to form, the film held off three new movies released nationwide on Friday.

Opening at No. 2 was kids' action movie "Agent Cody Banks," starring Frankie Muniz (news) of Fox television's "Malcolm in the Middle (news - Y! TV)" as a teenager who is really a CIA (news - web sites) agent, which grossed $15 million.

Action thriller "The Hunted," starring Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones (news) and Benicio del Toro as former special forces troops caught up in a game of kill or be killed, opened at No. 3 with sales of $13.5 million.

A third newcomer, "Willard," a remake of the 1971 rat-infested horror movie of the same name, was No. 8 with ticket sales of $4 million.

The new releases knocked combat drama "Tears of the Sun," starring Bruce Willis (news), to No. 4 from No. 2 last weekend with ticket sales of $8.8 million, down 48 percent from $17.2 million.

Closely trailing "Tears" was "Chicago," a front-runner for this year's best-picture Oscar. The film, which stars Renee Zellweger (news) and Catherine Zeta-Jones (news), moved down a notch to No. 5 on the box office roster, yet a flurry of pre-Academy Awards advertising sent gross ticket sales to $7.7 million, 13 percent higher than the $6.9 million earned last weekend.

"Chicago," released by Disney's Miramax Films, leads the field of Oscar contenders with 13 nominations. Its total cumulative ticket sales stand at $125.4 million.

After "Chicago" was the bawdy buddy DreamWorks comedy "Old School," which grossed $6.8 million to rank No. 6, followed by last week's No. 5 film, "How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days," which dropped to No. 7 with $4.8 million for the weekend. Paramount Pictures' romantic comedy, starring Kate Hudson (news) and Matthew McConaughey (news), has grossed a total of $93.9 million.

Following "Willard" at No. 9 on the box office roster with $3 million in ticket sales was "Daredevil," a Marvel Comics adaptation starring Ben Affleck (news) as a visually impaired crime fighter. "Daredevil" has proved a superhero commercial success, grossing a total of $96 million since opening over the Valentine's Day (news - web sites) weekend.

The martial arts action film "Cradle 2 the Grave" fell to No. 10 from No. 6 with $3 million in gross ticket sales, down 54 percent from a week earlier.

Reuters/Variety

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Following are the final data for the top 10 movies at the North American box office for the March 14-16 weekend, according to studio figures released Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.

Film Three-day Cumulative

1. Bringing Down the House .......... $22,054,934

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $61,287,160

2. Agent Cody Banks .......... $14,064,317

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $14,064,317

3. The Hunted .......... $13,482,638

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $13,482,638

4. Tears of the Sun .......... $8,705,853

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $30,721,673

5. Chicago .......... $7,105,479

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $124,845,340

6. Old School .......... $6,670,577

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $80,775,809

7. How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days .......... $4,685,917

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $93,724,277

8. Willard .......... $4,010,593

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $4,010,593

9. Daredevil .......... $3,030,687

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $96,033,651

10. Cradle 2 The Grave .......... $2,974,489

BOX OFFICE SO FAR: $31,688,273

Reuters/Variety

John L.:  The reign of Latifah continues as we have our first major sleeper hit of the year with Bringin' Down the House.  

After sitting through The Hunted, I have to wonder what is it that keeps me coming back to the cineplex to see movies. It seems that very few filmmakers can have action and character development happen in the same movie. You either get a lot of things blowing up or people getting killed for no apparent reason or you get a lot of apparent reason with nothing blowing up or no one getting killed. When properly mixed, you can have great entertainment, but when they are separated, trouble happens. The Hunted is an example of a movie with all action and no substance. There are hints here and there for reasons why things happen, but nothing is ever really explained. The plot has to do with Aaron Hallman (Benicio Del Toro) going mad after a troubling stint in Kosovo during their extermination days in 1999. Somehow, seeing innocent people being shot to death at point blank range has turned him into a member of PETA. Instead of trying to protect human life, he decides to kill people who hurt animals like big game hunters looking for caribou in the Pacific Northwest. His battle stress is intense and irreversible. The FBI is on the case, but they can't seem to find Hallman as he hides in the jungle. Only one man can it seems, and that is L. T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones), the military trainer slash tracker who taught Hallman how to kill a guy in 6 moves or less. L. T. is an amazing guy as he seems to have better tracking senses than the mutant Wolverine from the X-Men. You give him a footprint and a broken twig and he will find your ass no matter how far away you are. The movie becomes one big chase as Hallman is caught and escapes a couple of times and L. T. is always right behind him. The action is decent, but the scenes go on for a bit too long way after their points have been made. Hallman and L. T. are interesting and 10 or 15 minutes spread out through the movie to get more inside their heads would have helped immensely. You get nothing but a flashback training sequence between the 2 and some odd Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash riffs on how God wanted Abraham to kill his son. The father/son gimmick between these 2 unrelated characters is never fully realized. Quoting scripture is supposed to be enough for the audience to get the full effect of their relationship. Del Toro is just fair as Hallman. At one point in the film he describes the tracking of a squirrel and the hunting techniques of a house cat and I had to burst out laughing. Benicio may be an Oscar winning actor, but he uses none of that rep here. When the FBI asks him why he is doing what he is accused of, there is no real passion there or clear vision. It sounded like a table reading. He has two big fight scenes with Jones, and they are pretty good if a bit static. They fight each others with knives and cut each other up, but neither one sells the injuries. The realism seemed fake to me. I felt sorry watching Jones trying to make L. T. Different from his Sam Gerard "Fugitive" U. S. Marshall character. It is pretty much the same performance he gave in The Fugitive sequel, U. S. Marshalls. The only difference this time is that Jones is chasing a guilty perp. The Hunted is basically "The Fugitive 3". Connie Nielsen from "Gladiator" fame plays the lead FBI agent on the case and her role is thankless. Jones asks her if she ever shot her gun before and she says she had one other time but refuses to talk about it. In good movies, later in the film, you would hear that story. You never find out that story. There is no quiet time taken to get to know the 3 primary characters. It is all about the action. The most controversial scene in the movie is when Del Toro has to forge a hunting knife in about a half hour before he is caught. The problem is that it is done with a steel plate, a camp fire, on the base of a river dam. Survival training is taken to whole new limits. The director, William FriedkIn used to take the time in his movies to get the audience to care about the characters. In a better film, Del Toro's Hallman would be more sympathetic, and you would hope he somehow gets away. Maybe he was set up. You only hope that Hallman is caught so that the movie can end that much sooner. At about 94 minutes, it seemed obvious that there are a lot of deleted scenes to add to the DVD. I won't be buying it. Final Review: 2 stars out of 5; 4 1/2 out of 10; C-; thumbs down.