‘Jurassic Park III’ made a ferocious noise at the national box office over the weekend. After taking in $30.6 million on Wednesday and Thursday, its first two days, it added about $50 million more to its total over the weekend, causing larger-than-normal damage to the other family-friendly movies in the marketplace, despite being rated PG-13. Locally, the results were more muted but still good. Under the circumstances, it was no disgrace for Julia Roberts, the world’s top female draw, to finish in second place everywhere with the debut of her ‘America’s Sweethearts,’ a Hollywood-based romantic comedy featuring John Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones and co-screenwriter Billy Crystal. It gave Roberts her second biggest opening weekend, after ‘Runaway Bride,’ but then, with prices going up and movies opening in more theaters and with multiple prints, record-breaking has become the norm rather than the exception. ‘The Score’ is No. 3 here, down an acceptable 36 percent. Fourth locally is ‘Legally Blonde,’ off a steeper 47 percent. No. 5 here is ‘Cats & Dogs,’ off 32 percent. ‘Dr. Dolittle 2’ didn’t open quite as well as expected a month ago, but it’s holding up nicely. At No. 6, it’s down 34 percent. ‘Scary Movie 2’ is off 49 percent and running seventh on the local chart. It will turn a profit easily. ‘The Fast and the Furious,’ the year’s biggest sleeper, is No. 8, down 38 percent and already at the $125 million mark. No one a few years ago would have believed that that movie could do that business. ‘Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within’ is in one of the season’s most wicked downward spirals. Running No. 9 here, it’s off 67 percent locally in its second week and 69 percent nationally. The 10-week-old ‘Shrek’ is 10th here, off 30 percent. Due Friday are ‘Lakeboat,’ ‘The Closet,’ ‘Songcatcher’ and the one whose trailer has been running on the front of virtually every other movie, ‘Planet of the Apes.’ ‘CHORUS’ TO THE RESCUE The one-week engagement of ‘A Chorus Line’ at Downtown’s Benedum Center gave the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera its best week of the summer to date. The gross of $625,272 reflects 20,715 paying patrons and 92 percent of capacity. ‘South Pacific’ begins a two-week run tonight, with ‘Company’ slated for Aug. 7 to 12, to wrap up the season. Ed Blank is the Tribune-Review’s film critic. He can be reached at (412) 854-5555 or eblank@tribweb.com .

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