Johnny Depp’s From Hell seized the top spot at the box-office this weekend, earning an estimated $11.6 million. It was the second straight week in which profits were off and Hollywood executives blamed the nation’s growing fearof anthrax. It was also the second straight week that Hollywood executiveshave ignored the generally poor quality of their films.

From Hell stars Depp as Sherlock Holmes. Well, not really. Instead, he’s adistinguished Scotland Yard detective with an opium habit. Holmes was a Yardconsultant with a cocaine habit. There’s a big difference there, especiallywhen it comes to paying royalties. Anyway, the film chronicles Depp’sattempts to capture Jack the Ripper. Stylish and longer than the averagehorror film, From Hell’s debut was considered a success. Its distributor,Twentieth Century Fox, expects the film to do well with in the pre-Halloweenmarket.

Taking second place was the unbelievably expensive Riding in Cars withBoys, a movie loosely based on the story of author Beverly D’Onofrio. Forsome reason, it cost $47 million to make, although nobody is quite sure whatthat kind of money was spent on. Critics’ reactions made it seem as thoughit probably wasn’t the movie. Boys brought in $10.8 million. If it’s lucky,

Boys might break even.

This week’s only other new entrant was The Last Castle (reviewed in thisissue) which, despite good word-of-mouth reviews, struggled to a fifth placefinish. Earning $7.1 million, the Robert Redford film was criticallypilloried. While Dreamworks, the film’s distributor, hoped the film would dobetter, it conceded that such an awful opening weekend probably spelleddisaster for the prison film.

Rounding out the top-five were Training Day, which earned a third placefinish with $9.5 million, and Bandits, which took fourth with $8.4 million,rendering it a total failure, especially considering its hefty $80 millionprice tag.

After The Last Castle, Serendipity took sixth place with $5.8 million. Itwas followed by the “it’s unbelievable that they actually made this” CorkyRomano, which suckered $5.3 million out of the hands of innocent filmgoers.That makes Romano profitable, indicating that, in Hell, the devil is wearingmittens. The Chris Kattan starring vehicle was followed by Mike Douglas’sDon’t Say a Word ($4.4 million), Ben Stiller’s Zoolander ($3.3 million) andHong Kong’s Iron Monkey ($3.2 million).

On the art-house circuit, Richard Linklater’s animated Waking Dead made$22,000 on four screens. Joining it was an adaptation of Arthur Miller’sFocus, starring Laura Dern and William H. Macy, which raked in $13,000 at 18theaters. David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (reviewed in this issue) brought ina cool million at 247 theaters nationwide, including our own PleasantStreet.

Even though they said the same thing last week about this week, Hollywoodexecutives are serious when they hope that next weekend will be better thanthis week. Well, they might be serious. After all, Bones, a starring vehiclefor Snoop Doggy Dogg, is one of next weekend’s bigger releases. Although itlooks like a hackneyed Candyman rip-off, somebody actually put his or herpaycheck on this thing working out. And because Hollywood refuses to realizethat most movies starring music stars fail miserably (Glitter anyone?), Onthe Line is being released as well. It stars two members of N’Sync. Smellthe profits.

Other releases include K-Pax (Kevin Spacey’s first appearance since lastyear’s disastrous Pay It Forward), and the horror(able?) film 13 Ghosts.