Guess Who beat Sandra Bullock

Audiences did not have too much trouble guessing which was more entertaining -- the movie with a black man giving a tough time to his white aspiring son-in-law or the one in which a tough black woman with anger management issues and a celebrity white FBI agent with problems of her own bond to save a kidnapped beauty queen.

In the weekend race, the former, Guess Who, smartly held the much-hyped Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous to second place.

While its $21 million gross was encouraging, Guess Who has plenty of work to do in the coming weeks, as it must fight a big drop.

Critics beholden to the 1970s classic Guess Who's Coming To Dinner thought its comedic version Guess Who was a blasphemy and, to make it worse, a weak comedy.

The new movie also reversed the situation in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner that made Sidney Poitier an international star nearly four decades ago. In the dramatic film, a white couple (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) is shocked to find that their daughter's suitor is a black man.

In Guess Who, Percy Jones (Bernie Mac), a black man, is taking no chances with his daughter Theresa's (Zoe Saldana) future. Before he meets her boyfriend Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher), Percy has him checked out and is very impressed. And yet, even in this electronic age, Percy could not find out that the suitor is white.

To a new generation of audience, some of whom might not have even heard of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, the comedy seemed right.

But critics, of course, had plenty to crib. 

'The very idea of taking something important and insightful and mucking it up for the sake of cheap laughs and commerce seems cynical,' wrote the Associated Press critic. 'It's also disheartening. Sitting through it, however, is a fresh torture all its own, and it only serves as a reminder of how elegantly searing the original was.'

But audiences, in embracing the film heartily, also made it young star Kutcher's biggest opener.

Miss Congeniality 2 held $14.5 million in ransom. Since opening on Thursday, the film has grossed about $17.6 million.

Dropping over 60 percent of its audiences, horror movie The Ring Two plummeted from first to third place on the chart. But, even with the scary drop, it could reach $80 million in North America and make a decent profit. Its predecessor started off slowly, became a sleeper hit and earned about $130 million.

In fourth place, Robots continued to amuse families and could walk past $100 million in two weeks.

Another family movie The Pacifier, which was at fifth place, is also bound to do so. It has already grossed $86 million, $1 million less than Robots.

After many years, a Woody Allen film seems to be on its way to be a mild art-house hit, with a potential for a $10 million gross. The comedy-drama, Melinda And Melinda examines the boundary between comedy and tragedy, and has a winning performance by Radha Mitchell. The film widened from one New York theatre to 95 theatres in 12 cities and took in $790,000.

In the last two decades, even as his audiences in America have been dwindling, Allen has more often than not had his films turn into art-house hits in Europe. Though losing popularity in those countries as well, he still gets better and more enthusiastic audiences compared to America. And Melinda And Melinda is no exception. It has grossed about $9 million in Spain, Italy and France. The movie, which also features Will Ferrell and Amanda Peet, will add 20 cities on Friday.

Among smaller new releases, The Ballad Of Jack And Rose, revolving around the relationship between an anguished young daughter and her dying idealist father received very good reviews and shows the promise of turning into an art house success. The film, starring Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis, was directed by his wife Rebecca Miller, daughter of late playwright Arthur Miller.

As it continues to woo sophisticated audiences, the comedic family drama The Upside Of Anger, featuring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner, showing in 167 theatres grossed about $1.2 million over the weekend, taking its gross to $4 million. Like last week, it was the 11th highest grossing film of the week. The movie is poised to have several more expansions in the next few weeks.

Another small film attracting a significant number of audiences is Millions, the kid-friendly film with a moral core, which has reached $900,000. With over 100 theatres to be added on Friday, the Danny Boyle-directed film could ride into the top 15 films on the box-office chart next week.

Rounding up the top 10 list is Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby which has grossed $94 million in North America, largely as a result of its Oscar victory and nominations. Worldwide the film, made for about $30 million, has grossed $150 million. It was one of the most profitable films made last year.

Box office estimates for North America, March 25-27