The Passion Of The Christ took A$2,095,841 from 151 screens to retain first place in the chart during its second four-day weekend on release. This was about two thirds of the gross of the corresponding period a week earlier from a screen count that rose by six prints.

Speaking of prints, Roadshow must have found some money lying around to strike some more. About ten extras of The Return Of The King and of Mystic River, which have been in the charts for 11 and 16 weeks respectively, were in the marketplace compared to last weekend.

The hobbits rewarded the distributor with a A$490,747 gross from 165 screens, or about A$35,000 more, although the Academy Award hype would have also helped, and Mystic River took A$219,681 from 73 prints, which was an increase of A$100,000.

The two new films in the charts were Columbia TriStar's The Missing, which claimed second place with a gross of A$1,241,727 from 209 screens, and UIP's The Fighting Temptations and BVI's The Human Stain, which were in the charts in the 9th and 16th spots respectively.