MURPHY’S LAW

The Brittany Murphy-Ashton Kutcher comedy Just Married vaulted to the top of the weekend box office despite universally poor reviews.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which had been No. 1 for three straight weekends, slipped to second place with $15 million, but that pushed its total domestic gross to $283.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Just Married appealed solidly to young moviegoers, with people younger than 21 making up 65% of the audience. The movie debuted with $18 million, the amount it cost to shoot.

Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can came in third with $14.8 million, raising its total to $119.5 million. It was the 23rd movie released in 2002 to top $100 million, beating the previous record of 22 set in 2000.

Expanding from narrow release, Denzel Washington's Antwone Fisher and Nicolas Cage's Adaptation broke into the top 10. Antwone Fisher, directed by Washington, widened to 1,006 theaters and came in at No. 9 with $3.8 million, while Adaptation was No. 10 with $2.9 million in 560 theaters.

Also expanding from limited release were Ray Liotta's cop thriller Narc, which grossed $2.74 million in 822 theaters, and Spike Lee's drama The 25th Hour, which did $2.7 million in 490 theaters.

Two Weeks Notice came in fourth with $6.7 million and About Schmidt came in fifth on $6.3 million.