TOP 12: Audiences want more TREASURE

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Sunday, December 05, 2004

For the third week in a row NATIONAL TREASURE has topped the box office charts. The Nicolas Cage action-adventure film crossed the coveted $100 million dollar barrier this weekend, netting an estimated $17.1 M in ticket sales over these past three days. That brings the film's total to $110 M and counting.

Second place went to CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS, Tim Allen's holiday picture about a family that riles their neighbors and friends by deciding to skip the holiday celebrations. KRANKS added $11.7 to its haul, down 45% from its opening gross from last weekend.

After a less-than-hoped for opening week, THE POLAR EXPRESS continues to chug steadily along. After four weeks the CGI family film is at the cusp of cracking nine figures (estimated total $96.3 M as of today), and it's likely that as the holiday season continues to unfold the movie will manage to stay in the top 12 until after the new year begins.

THE INCREDIBLES is down this week to fourth spot, losing more than 60% of its hold from last weekend; SPONGEBOB is at fifth spot and on the verge of being a $70 M hit; and the week's new film, CLOSER, debuted strongly at seventh spot playing on just 476 screens.

Next week will see the mid-week opening of BLADE: TRINITY, the third and possibly final screen adventure of the Daywalker, and on Friday comes OCEAN'S TWELVE. Both will likely be big with audiences, but which will emerge as the top? We'll see you in seven and tell you the verdict.

Here's the estimated box office receipts of the top twelve films from December 3 through to December 5 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 3 to SUNDAY DECEMBER 5, 2004:


1. NATIONAL TREASURE $17,141,000 $110,249,000
2. CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS $11,700,000 $45,463,000
3. THE POLAR EXPRESS $11,020,000 $96,370,000
4. THE INCREDIBLES $9,159,000 $226,002,000
5. THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE $7,800,000 $68,353,000
6. CLOSER $7,700,000 $7,700,000
7. ALEXANDER $4,725,000 $29,650,000
8. FINDING NEVERLAND $2,851,000 $11,711,000
9. BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON $2,761,000 $36,321,000

10. RAY $1,895,000 $67,799,000
11. SIDEWAYS $1,815,000 $12,491,000
12. AFTER THE SUNSET $1,675,000 $26,744,000


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