Weekend Box Office Results

Normally, these will come on Monday, but obviously I'm a day behind this week. Not surprisingly, "Kingdom of Heaven" took the number one spot. What I must admit was a bit of a surprise was that it's $20 million dollars was not quite up to the level of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" the week before ($21.1 million). While a big H2G2 fan myself, I would've guessed that "Kingdom" would have the broader appeal. These earnings for "Kingdom" were reportedly within Fox's expectations, given the general slump of the box office this year. Still, I thought it would do better.
So what kept audiences from rushing out to see this one? Everyone must recognize the not-so-subtle allusions of this film to the current Western/Muslim conflict. Is this just another symptom of the American public's growing apathy about the war in Iraq? Or perhaps the overt religious themes kept away some movie-goers? (Although, I might argue that "Hitchhiker's" had just as much religious content, albeit more discreetly.) Maybe it's simply a case of moviegoers having spent their monthly box office budget last weekend. (In 2004, the last weekend of April was also stronger than the first of May.) Yes, the discrepancy is so small that it hardly warrants notice, at least on the big budget epic scale, but the result is still backward from what I, and many others expected.
I work in the office that purchased the advertising space and media time for "Hitchhikers." Here the consensus seems to be that our film did better than expected. But I still wonder if "Heaven" was lacking something. Perhaps the answer is 42. Your comments are welcome.