Identity, Columbia's thriller about a mystery killer whopreys on a group of stranded travellers, opened top of the charts on $17maccording to studio estimates released today.

The film stars John Cusack,Ray Liotta and Amanda Peet and drew decent reviews, averaging $6,220 from 2,733theatres. It was directed by James Mangold (Kate & Leopold) and should reach profitability soon bearing in mindits $28m price tag, which is less than half the cost of the average studio filmthese days.

Columbia/Revolution's AngerManagement slipped to second in itthird week and became the third comedy of the year to pass $100m, after BringingDown The House and How To Lose AGuy In 10 Days. It grossed $16m fora tremendous $104.5m running total in its third week.

Opening fifth on $4.8m wasLions Gate's ensemble drama Confidence, in which Ed Burns plays a con artist who must placate a crime lordwhom he has inadvertently ripped off.

The critics loved the $15mfilm, which also stars Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia and wasdirected by James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross). Confidence averaged $2,538 from 1,871 sites.

MGM's comedy It Runs inthe Family, which stars threegenerations of Douglases - Kirk, Michael and Michael's son Cameron - had a disappointingbow at ninth on $3m.

Kirk captains the familycomedy as a corporate lawyer recovering from a stroke. It Runs In The Family received poor reviews and averaged $2,458 from 1,207theatres. Fred Schipesi (Last Orders) directed and the film co-stars Diana Douglas and Rory Culkin.

New Line's "reality movie" TheReal Cancun, which follows a groupof excitable youngsters on spring break in Mexico, opened tenth on $2.3m. Madeby the producers of MTV's Real World series, the $8m film averaged $1,017 from 2,261 theatres and -surprisingly - elicited not entirely appalling reviews.

The Quest, a similar project from Universal, has been rescheduledfor release in the summer.

Ticket sales were down totheir lowest level in more than five months as the top 12 combined for $78.6m,down 11% against last weekend but up 9% compared to the same period last year.

The studios are laying lowand gearing up for the summer season, which kicks off in earnest next weekendwith the massive day-and-date release of 20th Century Fox's X2: X-Men United. That will be followed two weeks later by WarnerBros' The Matrix Reloaded.

In a classic piece ofcounter-programming, Disney's teen film The Lizzie McGuire Movie, is next week's only other wide release.

Estimated Top Ten US April25-27, 2003

Film(Distributor)/International distribution/Estimated weekend gross/Estimatedtotal to date

1 (-) Identity (Columbia) CTFDI $17m -

2 (1) Anger Management (Columbia/Revolution) CTFDI $16m $104.52m

3 (2) Holes (Buena Vista) BVI/Summit Entertainment $13m $36.8m

4 (3) Malibu's Most Wanted(Warner Bros) Warner Bros $7.71m$24.21m

5 (-) Confidence (Lions Gate) Lions Gate International $4.75m -

6 (4) Bulletproof Monk (MGM) Lakeshore International $4.65m $19.19m

7 (6) What A Girl Wants (Warner Bros) Warner Bros $3.36m $32.97m

8 (5) Phone Booth (Fox) Fox International $3.1m $40.27m

9 (-) It Runs In TheFamily (MGM) BVI $3m -

10 (-) The Real Cancun (New Line) New Line International $2.3m -