BOX OFFICE: Christmas Crowd Meet the Fockers
With no "Lord of the Rings" movies to contend with this Christmas weekend, "Meet the Fockers," which opened last Wednesday, became the best Christmas weekend opener ever at $44.7M. The previous best was 2002’s "Catch Me If You Can" at $30M. Coming in second this weekend was the live-action adaptation of "Fat Albert." Opening on Saturday, "Fat Albert" made $12.7M over two days. In its third week, "Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events" continued its run in third place with $12.5M, a 58% drop off from the previous weekend. "The Aviator," Martin Scorsese’s latest movie, which expands its theatrical release to 1796 sites, came in fourth at $9.4M. "Ocean’s Twelve," the star-studded sequel to 2001’s "Ocean’s Eleven," rounded out the top five at $8.6M.
Box Office Estimates for Weekend of Dec. 24-26, 2004
1. Meet the Fockers $44.7M
2. Fat Albert $12.7M
3. Lemony Snicket’s: A Series of Unfortunate Events $12.5M
4. The Aviator $9.4M
5. Ocean’s Twelve $8.7M
6. Darkness $6.4M
7. The Polar Express $6.3M
8. Spanglish $5.0M
9. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou $4.9M
10. Andrew Lloyd Webers The Phantom Of The Opera $4.2M
11. National Treasure $4.1M
12. Christmas With The Kranks $3.1M
