‘Coach’ has a winning weekend

“Coach Carter” outscored all newcomers and returning movies alike to emerge as the weekend’s No. 1 movie with an estimated $23.6 million for Friday through Monday.

The fact-based basketball drama with Samuel L. Jackson in the title role marked a minor milestone for Paramount Pictures as the studio’s second No. 1 debut in a row with movies from corporate sibling MTV Films. The previous No. 1 film was “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” from MTV’s Nickelodeon Movies unit, whose “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” began what studio executives hope will be a sustained turnaround as Paramount continues a management transition under the supervision of Viacom Co-President Tom Freston, with talent manager-producer Brad Grey taking over March 1 as chairman and chief executive of Paramount Pictures.

“Racing Stripes,” a family comedy from Warner Bros. about a zebra who dreams of becoming a race horse, opened in third place with an estimated $14 million for the three days.

The other major new entry, “Elektra,” with Jennifer Garner as the title heroine of Fox’s comic book spinoff from “Daredevil,” managed only a fifth-place showing with $12.5 million despite being in more theaters (3,204) than any other film in the top 10. That’s less than a third of the $40.3 million progenitor “Daredevil” grossed in its first weekend.

Universal’s “Meet the Fockers” slipped to second place for the first time in its fourth weekend. With an estimated $19 million Friday through Sunday, the film’s total climbed to $230.8 million. At this rate, the only question might be, what will they call the next sequel?

The well-reviewed “In Good Company,” also from Universal, expanded from three locations to 1,566, securing fourth place with an estimated $13.9 million and $14.4 million to date. It stars Topher Grace as a young hotshot who takes over the job of Dennis Quaid’s character and winds up dating his daughter, played by Scarlett Johansson.

A couple of late-2004 starters posted solid gains in limited release. Fox Searchlight’s critical favorite “Sideways” had a 15% increase in business expanding by just five theaters to 370 for a weekend figure of $2.2 million and $28.1 million to date. MGM’s United Artists film “Hotel Rwanda” took in an estimated $1.6 million from 192 locations (up from 105) for a 32% increase.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s “The House of Flying Daggers” expanded from 142 to 1,190 theaters in its seventh weekend, taking in an estimated $1.8 million, bringing the total for the Sony Pictures Classics release to a little more than $7 million.

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total Coach Carter $23.6 $23.6 Meet the Fockers 19.0 230.8 Racing Stripes 14.0 14.0 In Good Company 13.9 14.4 Elektra 12.5 12.5 White Noise 12.2 41.2 The Aviator 4.8 50.0 Lemony Snicket’s A of Unfortunate 4.0 111.0 Series Events The Phantom of the 3.6 26.4 Opera Ocean’s Twelve 2.9 119.8

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Source: Exhibitor Relations Co.