MOVIES Fonda flick reigns at box office

Will Ferrell's new movie was second.
By BRILL BUNDY
ZAP2IT.COM
LOS ANGELES -- Despite largely scathing reviews, Jane Fonda's return to movies to terrorize future daughter-in-law Jennifer Lopez topped the box office with an estimated $24 million, according to Exhibitor Relations. The comedy, which also stars "Alias'" Michael Vartan, average $7,017 among its 3,424 screens.
But it came nowhere close to last year's winner, "Troy," which opened to $46.9 million.
For his fifth wide release in a row, Will Ferrell's "Kicking & amp; Screaming" opened in the No. 2 spot with $20.9 million, joining the ranks of "Anchorman," "Elf," "Old School" and "Zoolander."
Opening wide but only on 1,955 screens, Jet Li's "Unleashed" came in third with an estimated $10.6 million.
"Kingdom of Heaven" ($9.6 million) and "Crash" ($7.2 million) round out the top five. "Kingdom of Heaven" dropped 51 percent from last week's No. 1 debut, bringing its total gross thus far to $35.1 million.
The rest of the top 10 are made up of films in their second to fourth weeks of release, except for "Mindhunters," the thriller starring Val Kilmer, LL Cool J and Christian Slater, which debuted at No. 10 and averaged $1,926 for each of its 1,040 screens, bringing its estimated gross to $2 million.
Overall, last week's top 12 grossed an estimated $95.5 million, up 21.7 percent from last weekend. This week, the summer movie season kicks into gear with the premiere of George Lucas' "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" on Thursday.