Posted: Wed., Mar. 23, 2005, 8:32pm PT

Weekend Box Office Preview
March 24, 2005

'Miss Congeniality' sequel hoping to win B.O. award

By Variety Staff

FUNNY MONEY
Comedy pics are flying high at the box office thanks to the carryover success of U's 'Meet the Fockers' and Sony's 'Are We there Yet?' Business should get better with today's entries, 'Guess Who' and 'Miss Congeniality 2.'
COMEDY B.O.*
700 600 500 400 300 200	278	289	205	189	276	366	391	264	330	604
	'96	'97	'98	'99	'00	'01	'02	'03	'04	'05
*in millions of dollars.

BOWING
Movie Title	Engagements
Miss Congeniality 2 (WB)*	3,183
Guess Who (Sony)	3,147
D.E.B.S. (Destination/Samuel Goldwyn)	45
The Ballad of Jack and Rose (IFC) NY, LA	4
Old Boy (Tartan) NY, LA, Chi	4
Nina's Tragedies (Wellspring) NY	3
Mondovino (ThinkFilm)†	7
EXPANDING
Melinda and Melinda (Fox Searchlight)	1-92
*bows today †bowed Wed

YEAR TO DATE
(in billions of $)
1.73 '04 (thru March 20)	1.72 -1% '05 (thru March 21)

	1. Miss Congeniality 2 2. Guess Who 3. The Ring Two 4. Robots 5. The Pacifier	These are the top 5 most requested films from activity on Moviefone's Web site and requests from callers. The top five has historically been 80% accurate in predicting the weekend's top five movies at the box office.
Visit Moviefone	View opening films

RELEASE DATES AND CHANGES
As of March 22
Pic	New date	Old date

BUENA VISTA

Valiant

Aug. 19

April 5

FIRST RUN

Le Grand Role

May 6

FOX

X-men 3

May 26 '06

May 5 '06

Big Momma's House 2

Dec. 16

INNOVATION FILM GROUP

Crazy Like a Fox

May 13

TBA

MAGNOLIA PICTURES

A League of Ordinary Gentlemen

May 13

ZEITGEIST

Writer of O

May 4

The World

Summer

Red indicates new entry

Source: ACNielsen EDI FilmSource