TOP 10: Long live the KING

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Sunday, December 28, 2003

Even though it faced Christmas competition, THE RETURN OF THE KING still remains the box office champ for the second weekend in a row. Peter Jackson's final RINGS film took in an estimated $51.2 million dollars this past weekend, pushing its combined total to a princely $223.7 M. That ties RETURN OF THE KING with THE MATRIX RELOADED as the fastest-grossing film to take in $200 M (in just 11 days.) At this rate the film will easily eclipse the grosses for THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and THE TWO TOWERS.

Fox's new family comedy CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN captured second place with $28.2 M and $36.4 M since the picture's opening on Christmas Day. Miramax's Oscar pedigree COLD MOUNTAIN was third was $14.5 M; Columbia's SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE fell slightly to fourth spot; and John Woo's PAYCHECK did OK and landed at fifth overall. The biggest disappointment this weekend was the live-action PETER PAN film; with a buget exceeding $100 M, the fantasy adventure could only capture a little over $15 M since it's opening on Christmas Day.

Here are the estimated box office receipts of the top ten films from December 26 through to December 28, with their weekend gross and the movie's total domestic gross to date:

1. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING $51,220,000 $223,690,000
2. CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN $28,225,000 $36,400,000
3. COLD MOUNTAIN $14,538,000 $19,044,000
4. SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE $14,200,000 $56,400,000
5. PAYCHECK $13,900,000 $19,200,000
6. MONA LISA SMILE $11,500,000 $31,500,000
7. PETER PAN $11,420,000 $15,091,000
8. THE LAST SAMURAI $8,370,000 $74,370,000
9. BAD SANTA $4,523,000 $50,944,000
10. ELF $4,200,000 $164,863,000


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