TOP 10: Jackson's final RINGS is the KING

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Sunday, December 21, 2003

The final film in Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, THE RETURN OF THE KING, catapulted to the top of the box office this weekend (to no one's real surprise.) The New Line Cinema picture has grossed an estimated $73.6 million dollars over the weekend, pushing its total domestic take to $125 M and change. It's going to have a long and healthy run at theaters, so the only real question to pose is if the movie will beat the final gross of THE TWO TOWERS, the RINGS franchise's current top earner.

If fantasy adventure wasn't your thing there was always MONA LISA SMILE to see. The Julia Roberts-led movie came in second place with ticket receipts neighboring around $12 M. Last week's number one film, SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE, fell to third followed by THE LAST SAMURAI and STUCK ON YOU. ELF and BAD SANTA are still in the top ten but THE CAT IN THE HAT has now dropped to eleventh, struggling to make it to $100 M.

Next weekend really begins on Christmas Day when we'll see PAYCHECK, PETER PAN and CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN open. Will THE RETURN OF THE KING continue to hold on to top spot?

Here's the estimated box office receipts of the top ten films from December 19 through to December 21, with their weekend gross and the film's total domestic gross to date:

1. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING $73,600,000 $125,071,000
2. MONA LISA SMILE $12,000,000 $12,000,000
3. SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE $11,500,000 $33,513,000
4. THE LAST SAMURAI $7,335,000 $59,053,000
5. STUCK ON YOU $5,400,000 $17,099,000
6. ELF $5,000,000 $154,310,000
7. BAD SANTA $4,257,000 $42,066,000
8. THE HAUNTED MANSION $4,200,000 $59,100,000
9. LOVE DON'T COST A THING $3,960,000 $11,402,000
10. HONEY $2,590,000 $23,478,000


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