Box office goes to the dogs - and cats

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The fur flew at movie theaters over the weekend. "Cats and Dogs," a family film about household pets feuding over world domination, debuted as the No. 1 movie with a weekend gross of $21.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The movie was a whisker ahead of the horror spoof sequel "Scary Movie 2," which took in $21 million.

Both movies opened on the Fourth of July, with "Cats and Dogs" racking up $35.7 million in its first five days and "Scary Movie 2" grossing $34.5 million. "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," last weekend's No. 1 film, slipped to third place with $14.1 million, pushing its 10-day total to $59.7 million. The weekend's other big new release, Jet Li's martial-arts thriller "Kiss of the Dragon," opened at No. 4 with $13.6 million. The overall box office was down, with the top 12 movies grossing $122.4 million, off 10.7% from the same weekend a year ago, when the original "Scary Movie" opened with a whopping $42.3 million.
1. Cats & Dogs, $21.7 million,
2. Scary Movie 2, $21 million,
3. A.I. Artificial Intelligence, $14.1 million,
4. Kiss of the Dragon, $13.6 million,
5. The Fast and the Furious, $12.4 million,
6. Dr. Dolittle 2, $10.1 million,
7. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, $6.8 million,
8. Shrek, $6 million,
9. Atlantis: The Lost Empire, $5 million,
10. Baby Boy, $4.8 million.