'Blade 2' Carves Itself No. 1 Spot

By Elizabeth Darst

Monday March 25, 2002 07:59 AM EST

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Yahoo Buzz
• E-mail

Wesley Snipes returned as the Marvel Comics vampire-hunting superhero, taking the top spot at the box office in its opening weekend with $33.1 million, reports Reuters. But executives at Twentieth Century Fox, the studio behind the animated hit "Ice Age," disputed the ratings, saying the New Line film only made $30 million, bringing in less than "Ice Age." (New Line, like PEOPLE, is part of AOL Time Warner.) The discrepancy will be decided when the weekend tally is finalized on Monday. Coming in third place with a tidy $15.1 million was the 20th anniversary digitally enhanced reissue of the Steven Spielberg classic, "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial." The only other new film in the top 10, the Touchstone comedy "Sorority Boys," had a so-so opening with $4.2 million. The Top 10 movies of the weekend are as follows:

1. "Blade II," $33.1 million
2. "Ice Age," $31 million
3." E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," $15.1 million
4. "Showtime," $8.2 million
5. "Resident Evil," $6.6 million
6. "We Were Soldiers," $5.8 million
7. "The Time Machine," $5.2 million
8. "A Beautiful Mind," $4.3 million
9. "Sorority Boys," $4.2 million
10. "40 Days and 40 Nights," $2.7 million