May 10, 2004 - Director Stephen Sommers enjoyed a career second-best opening this weekend with his monster movie actioner, Van Helsing, taking the top spot at the box office with $51.7 million.  That figure tops The Mummy's $43.4 million opening, but falls behind The Mummy Return's $68.1 million debut. The Hugh Jackman/Kate Beckinsale starrer is playing on a whopping 3,575 screens domestically.

Lindsay Lohan's Mean Girls, in its sophomore frame, brought in $13.7 million in second place. The Tina Fey-scripted flick has amassed $42.1 million.

Man on Fire, starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning, landed in third with $8.2 million.

New York Minute, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's big-screen comedy, debuted in the fourth spot with just under $6 million.

In fifth, Jennifer Garner's 13 Going on 30 picked up $5.8 million.

Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore's romantic comedy, Laws of Attraction, placed sixth this weekend with $3.7 million.

Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2 was seventh with a little over $3 million. The film has grossed $57.8 million in four weeks of release.

Godsend, the thriller starring Greg Kinnear, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and Robert De Niro, slipped from fourth to eighth with $2.8 million.

Ben Stiller and Jack Black's Envy fell three places to ninth with just over $10 million.

Rounding out the top ten this weekend was Disney's traditionally animated film Home on the Range with $1.3 million.

Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale in Van Helsing

Here's the weekend breakdown...