'Analyze This' outmuscles Michelle Pfeiffer's grief and the spawn of 'Carrie'

A mob of five new films couldn’t dislodge ”Analyze This” from first place in the weekend box office charts. The Harold Ramis-directed comedy took in an estimated $15.7 million, just a 15 percent drop from its debut last week. The comedy’s broad appeal hurt the openers: Adults flocked to it instead of Michelle Pfeiffer’s ”The Deep End of the Ocean,” which landed in a lowly sixth place with $5.6 million, and teens opted for it instead of ”The Rage: Carrie 2,” which placed second with $7.4 million, but had only a $3,237 per screen average, compared to $6,188 for ”Analyze.”

Rounding out the top 5 were the holdover ”Cruel Intentions” (plummeting 46 percent to $7 million to take third place), the Mark Walberg newbie ”The Corruptor” ($5.9 million), and, miraculously, the woefully reviewed ”Baby Geniuses” ($5.8 million). Considering that disgusted critics did everything but stand outside theaters physically blocking people from buying tickets, the respectable take for ”Geniuses” was a surprise. TriStar said the film succeeded because it was the only film out there for kids. Somebody ought to file child-abuse charges.