'COLLATERAL' DAMAGE HITS 'THE VILLAGE' CRUISE'S 5TH STRAIGHT NO. 1.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

The Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx thriller ``Collateral'' earned $24.4 million over the weekend to easily dislodge a rapidly fading ``The Village'' from the top spot, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Directed by Michael Mann and set in downtown Los Angeles, ``Collateral'' casts Cruise against type as a cold-blooded assassin. The film's debut gave Cruise his fifth consecutive No. 1 opening, a streak that also includes ``The Last Samurai,'' ``Minority Report,'' ``Vanilla Sky'' and ``Mission: Impossible 2.''

``Based on the tracking, our expectations were closer to $20 million, so this is more what we had hoped for than what we expected,'' said DreamWorks Pictures' distribution head Jim Tharp, whose studio released the film.

Approximately 60 percent of the audience was over the age of 25, which Tharp believes bodes well for its longevity in the marketplace.

But a long and steady run does not appear to be in the cards for the suspense-thriller ``The Village,'' the latest movie from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan.

Ticket sales for ``The Village'' plummeted by a devastating 67 percent in the film's second weekend as it earned an estimated $16.5 million. It had opened strongly in first place last weekend but has suffered from mixed reviews and poor word of mouth.

``The percentage changes are really the strongest indicator of how a film is perceived by audiences,'' said box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. `` 'The Village' opened so big that it couldn't sustain that level of box office for very long.''

``The Village'' had given the film division of The Walt Disney Co. its first No. 1 opening weekend of 2004, but the second-week drop makes clear that the studio is still looking to score a break-out hit this year.

Quietly gathering steam is Fox Searchlight's ``Napoleon Dynamite,'' playing in just 546 locations. It nearly cracked the top 10 with a gross of $1.7 million and has earned $12.6 million to date.

``The word of mouth has spread,'' said Steve Gilula, Fox Searchlight's president of distribution. ``It's a truly independent film, very fresh and different.''

Another low-budget independent film, ``Open Water,'' had a strong $1 million opening despite being in only 47 theaters. Released by Lions Gate Films, the drama about a couple of scuba divers stranded in shark-infested waters will go into wide release Aug. 20.

``It's a great opening, and we feel it sets up the wide release really well,'' said Steve Rothenberg, Lions Gate's executive vice president of distribution.

The weekend's other new wide release besides ``Collateral'' was the comedy ``Little Black Book,'' which opened weakly with an estimated $7 million in ticket sales. Released by Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Revolution Studios film bowed in fifth place behind holdovers ``The Bourne Supremacy'' and ``The Manchurian Candidate.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

TOP 10 MOVIES

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released today.

1. ``Collateral,'' $24.4 million.

2. ``The Village,'' $16.6 million.

3. ``The Bourne Supremacy,'' $14.1 million.

4. ``The Manchurian Candidate,'' $10.8 million.

5. ``Little Black Book,'' $7 million.

6. ``I, Robot,'' $6.3 million.

7. ``Spider-Man 2,'' $5.5 million.

8. ``Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,'' $3.2 million.

9. ``A Cinderella Story,'' $3.05 million.

10. ``Catwoman,'' $2.9 million.

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TOP 10 MOVIES (see text)