TOP 12: Audiences MEET THE FOCKERS

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Monday, December 27, 2004

The sequel to MEET THE PARENTS catapulted to the top spot at this past weekend's box office, dethroning last week's champ, LEMONY SNICKET, and sending it down to third place. MEET THE FOCKERS earned an estimated $44.6 million over the weekend ($68.5 M since it opened on Wednesday), giving the picture the record for the best holiday opening ever. PARENTS, which opened four years ago, bowed to $28.6 M on its opening weekend, which makes prospects for the sequel to outperform its predecessor very good indeed.

FAT ALBERT came out in second spot followed by the aforementioned LEMONY SNICKET film. THE AVIATOR opened in wide release, earning enough to place it fourth overall while OCEAN'S 12 sank to fifth spot. DARKNESS, the horror holiday picture, shone in sixth spot.

With so many new films opening this Christmas day, there wasn't much room for the other guys in the top twelve. BLADE: TRINITY isn't faring as well as the other two entries in this franchise. In its third week of release the sequel has fallen to fourteeth spot (total gross just $41.7 M), which doesn't bode well for any future sequels or spinoffs with the Nightstalkers characters. Disney's THE INCREDIBLES is at fifteenth position (total of $242.6 M) and Paramount/Nickelodeon's SPONGEBOB flick isnow at nineteenth (total $78.7 M.)

Here's the estimated box office receipts of the top twelve films from December 24 through to December 26 with their weekend gross and the movie's total domestic gross to date. As always, the week's new films are signified in red.


BOX OFFICE FRIDAY DECEMBER 24 to SUNDAY DECEMBER 26, 2004:


1. MEET THE FOCKERS $44,679,000 $68,513,000
2. FAT ALBERT $12,700,000 $12,700,000
3. LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS $12,500,000 $59,278,000
4. THE AVIATOR $9,415,000 $10,755,000
5. OCEAN'S 12 $8,645,000 $86,863,000
6. DARKNESS $6,432,000 $6,432,000
7. THE POLAR EXPRESS $6,295,000 $140,000,000
8. SPANGLISH $5,000,000 $18,538,000
9. THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU $4,881,000 $5,264,000
10. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $4,200,000 $6,520,000

11. NATIONAL TREASURE $4,069,000 $141,186,000
12. CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS $3,100,000 $69,324,000


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