2 GOOD!!!

The follow up to the 2001 hit The Fast and the Furious, bumped the previous weekend's top film, the animated deep-sea adventure Finding Nemo, which slipped to second place with an estimated $45.8 million.

2 Fast 2 Furious beat the $40.1 million opening weekend of The Fast and the Furious despite the absence of action star Vin Diesel, who did not return for the sequel. The new movie again features Paul Walker.

Three-fourths of the audience was younger than 25, and 2 Fast 2 Furious drew a broad ethnic mix, with Hispanics making up 38% of viewers and blacks accounting for 16%, according to the Associated Press.

Finding Nemo, whose $70.3 million debut a week earlier was the best ever for an animated film, pushed its 10-day total to $143.3 million. That was about $21 million ahead of the 10-day total of Monsters, Inc.

The overall box office soared, with the top 12 movies grossing $157.1 million, up 52% from a year ago. Even so, despite two straight weekends of increased revenues, the box office so far this year continues to lag 4% to 5% behind 2002, when the industry took in a record $9.5 billion.

Bruce Almighty, which finished in third, took in $21.7 million while The Italian Job nabbed $13.3 million.