TOP 12: Movie audiences enjoy forgetting

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

Julianne Moore wasn't out of the minds of audience goers this past weekend as her new film, THE FORGOTTEN, opened at the top of the box office chart. The Sony Pictures thriller took in an estimated $22 million dollars from Friday to Sunday, making it the number one film in North America. Last week's champ, SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, dropped to second spot overall with its $6.7 M rake.

The RESIDENT EVIL sequel is still chugging along and earned another $4 M, tying (for the moment) with Fox's FIRST DAUGHTER romantic comedy for fourth spot. CEULLAR dropped one spot to sixth overall and Focus Features' SHAUN OF THE DEAD claimed eighth position with $3.2 M in ticket sales. Now, before you get worried that such a low debut for SHAUN means the British rom-zom-com has bombed in America, you need to know that the movie only played on a little over 600 screens across the continent. Compare that to THE FORGOTTEN or SKY CAPTAIN which are playing on over 3,000 screens and you see what I mean. Focus will be expanding the film in the coming weeks just in time to take advantage of the trick or treat season.

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


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

1. THE FORGOTTEN $22,000,000 $22,000,000
2. SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW $6,735,000 $25,594,000
3. MR. 3000 $5,000,000 $15,380,000
4. FIRST DAUGHTER $4,000,000 $4,000,000
5. RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE $4,000,000 $43,428,000
6. CELLULAR $3,650,000 $25,061,000
7. WIMBLEDON $3,385,000 $12,182,000
8. SHAUN OF THE DEAD $3,258,000 $3,258,000
9. WITHOUT A PADDLE $2,380,000 $53,510,000
10. HERO $2,259,000 $49,246,000
11. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE $1,850,000 $35,763,000
12. COLLATERAL $1,500,000 $98,175,000


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