TOP 10: FAHRENHEIT 9/11 heats the box office

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Sunday, June 27, 2004

Filmmaker Michael Moore's FAHRENHEIT 9/11, his controversial documentary about the terrorists attacks of 2001 and the Bush Administration, rose to the top of the box office even though the film is showing on less than one thousand screens. Playing on just 868 screens, FAHRENHEIT 9/11 took in an estimated $21.8 million in its first three days of release, earning more than Moore's previous effort, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, did throughout its entire theatrical run. The movie also had the highest per screen average of any film this weekend, and over the course of the next two weekends its distributors will expand F 9/11 into more markets.

The latest comedy from the Wayans brothers, WHITE CHICKS, crossed the line in second place with $19.6 M. The film, which opened on Wednesday, has $27.1 M total so far. Meanwhile, last week's number one, DODGEBALL, dropped to a respectable third and earned an additional $18.5 M, while Steven Spielberg's THE TERMINAL also earned another $13.9 M to its take.

The weekend's other two new entries had placings in the top ten: New Line Cinema's THE NOTEBOOK is in sixth overall and Universal's TWO BROTHERS is at ninth. THE STEPFORD WIVES grabbed onto tenth position; THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK is number eleven ($51 M total so far); and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS has sunk to twelfth (a disappointing $18 M total).

And everything will likely change with the opening of SPIDER-MAN 2 this coming Wednesday.

Here are the estimated box office receipts of the top ten films from June 25 through to June 27, with their weekend gross and the movie's total domestic gross to date. For all of you that sent in feedback about last week's experiment where I used red to signify new releases, thank you. It looks like you want the new feature to stick around, so it will. (And to the colorblind individuals that wrote in, I'll see what I can do to better your future reading experiences.)


BOX OFFICE FRIDAY JUNE 25 to SUNDAY JUNE 27, 2004:


1. FAHRENHEIT 9/11 $21,800,000 $29,958,000
2. WHITE CHICKS $19,600,000 $27,100,000
3. DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY $18,500,000 $67,171,000
4. THE TERMINAL $13,900,000 $41,805,000
5. THE NOTEBOOK $13,025,000 $13,025,000

6. HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN $11,420,000 $211,710,000
7. SHREK 2 $10,500,000 $397,066,000
8. GARFIELD: THE MOVIE $7,000,000 $55,770,000
9. TWO BROTHERS $6,210,000 $6,210,000
10. THE STEPFORD WIVES $5,200,000 $49,005,000


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