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
