John Travolta's new thriller Swordfish hooked enough movie-goers to debut as the weekend's top film, earning $18.4 million.

        Swordfish stars Mr. Travolta playing a villainous agent out to steal billions to finance anti-terrorist attacks.

BOX OFFICE TOP 10

Estimated ticket sales in millions for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.:   1. Swordfish, $18.4 m   2. Shrek, $17.1 m   3. Pearl Harbor, $14.9 m   4. Evolution, $13.2 m   5. The Animal, $9.8 m   6. Moulin Rouge, $7.6 m   7. What's the Worst That Could Happen?, $5.4 m   8. The Mummy Returns, $4.2 m   9. A Knight's Tale, $1.7 m   10. Bridget Jones's Diary, $1.2 m.

        Holding well, the animated Shrek retained the No. 2 spot with $17.1 million, pushing its four-week total to $176.6 million. Pearl Harbor, the No. 1 film for two straight weekends, slipped to third place with $14.9 million, raising its total to $144.1 million after three weeks.

        The David Duchovny-Julianne Moore comedy Evolution debuted at No. 4 with $13.2 million.

        The overall box office continued this year's upward trend. The top 12 movies grossed $94.8 million, up 3.3 percent from the same weekend a year ago. So far in 2001, Hollywood revenues are running about 9.5 percent ahead of last year's record pace.

        Despite generally bad reviews, Swordfish wound up as Mr. Travolta's third-best debut ever, behind Face/Off and The General's Daughter. Swordfish also soundly beat the openings of Mr. Travolta's last two movies, the black comedy Lucky Numbers and Battlefield Earth, one of Hollywood's biggest bombs in years.

        Box-office analysts had not expected Swordfish to debut so strongly.

        “It's good to be back in the John Travolta business,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released Swordfish and also Battlefield Earth. “We beat the odds. The tracking had us down the totem pole, but people really like this movie.”

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