Boy wizard’s spell holds for third week

LOS ANGELES — The third weekend was still a charm for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which remained the top movie with $20.45 million US.

Charlize Theron’s sci- fi tale Aeon Flux, a movie apparently so bad distributor Paramount did not screen it beforehand for critics, still managed to debut in second place with $ 13.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

With Aeon Flux the only notable new wide release, the remainder of the top 10 was filled out with holdover flicks, led by 20th Century Fox’s Johnny Cash chronicle Walk the Line, the No. 3 movie with $10 million.

It was a quiet weekend at theatres compared to the busy Thanksgiving period. The top 12 movies took in $79 million, virtually the same as the corresponding weekend a year ago.

Hollywood is in the midst of a prolonged slump, with attendance down eight per cent compared to 2004, though studios are preparing for a brisk December with such films as King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Wi tch and the Wardrobe, The Producers and Steven Spielberg’s Munich.

Warner Bros. lifted its domestic total for Harry Potter to $229.8 million. Worldwide, the latest adventure of boy wizard Harry has taken in $560 million.

“ Harry Potter is clearly dominating the business,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. “ It’s the movie that everybody hoped it would be. The box- office performance is living up to, and maybe at this point, exceeding expectations.”

In limited release, the roadtrip tale Transamerica opened strongly with $45,269 in two theatres, averaging $22,635 a cinema. By comparison, Aeon Flux averaged $5,023 in 2,608 theatres.

Transamerica has drawn Academy Awards buzz for