'Cars' holds pole position at box office

SAN FRANCISCO, June 19 (Reuters) ''Cars,'' the latest animated feature from Pixar, held off Jack Black's new comedy ''Nacho Libre'' to retain pole position at the North American box office, bringing in 31.2 million dollars during its second weekend, according to studio estimates released yeserday.

''Cars,'' which features the voices of Owen Wilson and Paul Newman, is the seventh Disney-Pixar film and its first collaboration since Walt Disney Co. acquired Pixar in January for 7.4 billion dollars.

The Friday-to-Sunday gross for ''Cars'' marked a 50 per cent drop in ticket sales from its opening weekend, which is fairly typical for a big summer movie.

The Pixar films ''The Incredibles,'' ''Finding Nemo'' and ''Monsters, Inc.'' had average second-weekend drop-offs of 30 per cent.

In two weeks, ''Cars'' has grossed 114.5 million dollars.

Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. President Paul Dergarabedian, whose box office tracking firm released the studio estimates, said yesterday the new films ''Nacho Libre'' and ''Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties'' were aimed at the same young audience as ''Cars.'' ''Garfield'' posted ticket sales of .2 million in its opening weekend.

''I don't think the drop-off says anything particular about the movie, just that there is a lot of competition out there,'' he said.

''It was a pretty crowded field.'' ''Cars,'' the story of a talking race car named Lightning McQueen, is also competing for the family audience with animal cartoon ''Over the Hedge,'' which had receipts of 4 million dollars.

SUMMER BOOST SEEN Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution, predicted ''Cars'' would continue to gain steam during the summer when students were on vacation.

''With school being out now, that helps to strengthen our ability to be in the market for a long time,'' Viane said. ''All of this is playing for a very long run for us.'' Taking the No. 2 spot at 27.5 million dollars was Jack Black's comedy ''Nacho Libre.'' Black plays a cook in a Mexican orphanage who moonlights as a wrestler to raise money for the orphans.

''The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' followed at 24.1 million dollars and showed the latest film in the street-racing franchise could still drive audiences to theaters.

The pairing of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, who starred together in the the thriller ''Speed,'' took the fourth-place spot with ''The Lake House.'' The film, which had ticket sales of .7 million, weaves a supernatural tale of two people who fall in love even though they are living in different years.

''X-Men: The Last Stand,'' the Marvel Comics fantasy starring Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry, finished the weekend at No. 7 with 7.2 million dollars in ticket sales, lifting its overall tally to 215.5 million dollars.

''The Da Vinci Code'' also remained in the top 10 with a million weekend that brought the cumulative tally of the film starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard to 198.5 million dollars.

REUTERS CH ND0846