When it came to box-office bloodshed this weekend, nothing could top Kill Bill: Volume 2.

Uma Thurman's continued "roaring rampage of revenge" through Quentin Tarantino's pulpy pop saga scored the expected killing at the multiplex, earning $25.1 million, according to final studio figures released Monday--a solid 16 percent above the $22.1 million debut of Volume 1 last October.

Despite a big body count of its own, The Punisher, a more conventional revenge tale, Marvel Comics style, could only manage a distant second place with $13.8 million.

Bill and The Punisher not only slayed the box office, they made mincemeat out of the weekend's other prominent new entry, Connie and Carla. The gender-skewed comedy, with My Big Fat Greek Wedding's Nia Vardalos and Muriel's Wedding's Toni Collette as waitresses hiding out as Broadway-belting drag queens, was left at the altar. The flick failed to hit the top 10, only managing to gross $3.3 million.

Overall, it was a down weekend for the first time in nearly two full months. Not only was the combined $85.2 million tally for the top 12 films down 4 percent down from last year, when Anger Management was the top movie, but the box office was down 13 percent from last weekend, when The Passion of the Christ held sway.

With Easter over, however, Mel Gibson's religious epic fell a whopping 73 percent to 10th place, with just $4.1 million. Of course, The Passion has been anything but a dud--this weekend's receipts made it the the seventh highest domestic grosser ever with $360.8 million, moving ahead of Jurassic Park's $357 million.

Meanwhile, audiences continued to forget The Alamo. The high-priced historical drama is an unmitigated disaster for Disney, falling from its dismal fourth place opening last week all the way down to ninth. The Alamo brought in just $4.1 million, a drop of 55 percent, to bring its total to a woeful $16.4 million. In comparison, Fox Searchlight's relatively inexpensive comedy Johnson Family Vacation, starring Cedric the Entertainer, remained in third place for a second week, earning $6 million (a drop of just 37 percent) and bringing its current gross to a decent $21 million.

But back to the up stuff.

Miramax opened the favorably reviewed R-rated conclusion of Kill Bill--in which Uma's Bride hunts down titular baddie David Carradine and his cronies Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen--in 2,971 sites, where it averaged $8,450. That's a bump up from the $7,121 averaged at 3,102 sites by the first portion of the bloody tale.

Volume 2 registered as the third best April opener ever, squeaking by Hellboy (now in fourth place on this week's top 10), which debuted with $23.1 million earlier this month. But Tarantino's flick couldn't top The Scorpion King's $36 million in 2002 or Anger Management's $42.2 million last year.

With the Kill Bill saga's combined budget around $60 million, the studio stands to turn a tidy profit. Volume 1 has earned about $70 million domestically and $180 million worldwide, and the just released DVD sold more than 2 million copies in its first days on the shelf.

Lions Gate's R-rated The Punisher, starring Thomas Jane as an ex-agent with a grudge and John Travolta as the big bad boss, bloodied 2,649 sites, where it averaged $5,223 per screen.

Connie and Carla, a PG-13 Universal release written by Vardalos and directed by Michael Lembeck, was only booked into 1,014 sites, averaging a so-so $3,210.

In more limited release, Young Adam, a Sony Pictures Classic release starring Ewan McGregor in a grim British tale about sex and death--slapped with an NC-17 rating--managed to average $5,586 per site at nine locations for $50,278.

Here is a rundown of the top 10 films, based on studio tallies compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Kill Bill: Volume 2, $25.1 million
2. The Punisher, $13.8 million
3. Johnson Family Vacation, $6 million
4. Hellboy, $5.7 million
5. Home on the Range, $5.5 million
6. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, $5.2 million
7. Walking Tall, $4.6 million
8. Ella Enchanted, $4.2 million
9. The Alamo, $4.14 million
10. The Passion of the Christ, $4.05 million

(Originally published April 18, 2004 at 1:45 p.m. PT.)