MGM and Hyde Park Entertainment's PG-13 rated comedy Bandits kicked off in second place to a sexy ESTIMATED $13.46 million at 3,207 theaters ($4,198 per theater).

Directed by Barry Levinson, it stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett.

"I think you were right when you said that," MGM worldwide theatrical marketing and distribution president Bob Levin said Sunday morning when I told him I'd predicted a first place finish for Bandits.

"We all feel that that's where we were. And then, here you are watching TV waiting for your first early matinee grosses to come in (on Friday) and, oh, there goes Bruce Willis' Good Morning America (promotional appearance). And then you flip over and Regis and Kelly are still on and then in the middle of (that show) where he's supposed to be (there was an interruption for breaking news)."

After that, he continued, "It just became an onslaught of a mixture of anthrax here, anthrax there stories and rumors, validations, news conferences and then (Attorney General John) Ashcroft every once in a while telling people there's a real serious threat for the next three days. I think that cooked up the stew because every indication was that we'd open better. In fact, every indication I think that Disney had (about Corky Romano) and every indication that Miramax had (about Iron Monkey) on their two movies is they'd open better."

Assessing what happened, Levin said, "I just think we took the severest hit by everything we measure (being) an adult comedy. Our exits say about 75 percent of the audience that showed up was over 25. We know from our sneaks (the previous weekend) that was also true. We know from everything that we're an adult movie that plays exactly to the kind of people who are most sensitive to current events versus Corky being a youth comedy and Training Day being an urban, gritty movie. So we were probably hit more than anyone."

Bandits' New York grosses were hit very hard, on Friday, Levin said, pointing out that, "We did more in those matinees in (small towns in) Texas than we did in some of the key houses in Manhattan. That's how severe Manhattan was (affected). And you know, there were other things going on (that also reflected the public's concern about going out this weekend). The Brave's game had 70 percent attendance. The Rose Bowl (UCLA vs. Washington) wasn't filled yesterday.

"And then we had these huge unexpected bumps (on Saturday vs Friday). You know, you look at a movie like this and you'd say Friday to Saturday (should be in the) 20-25 percent range in the bump. New York came back 62 percent. D.C. was 60 percent. (But) these enormous bumps were still not bumping enough to what you really need to right the ship. We saw ourselves last night probably get a number that we would have been happy getting Friday night under normal circumstances and we filled out from there. Although Saturday showed signs that it bounced back, it just didn't come back strong in volume. It came back in percentages very, very strong. But Friday was a wipe out for us."

Looking ahead, Levin noted, "We have strong word of mouth and I think we're, for the time being, into a new world of movie marketing, distribution and opening and that can be uprighted by any change in what the public needs to know and how they respond to it. I think this is a sign of that. It's like we all understand (the effect of) blizzards or earthquakes -- 'Oh, L.A. had an earthquake so no one went to the movies.' Or, 'Oh, the mid-west got wiped out (by a blizzard).' This is like a self-selecting blizzard. You can get out of the house if you want to, but you don't want to.