Weekend Box Office (October 15 - 17, 2004)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND The animated feature Shark Tale held on to the top spot on the charts this weekend, while the puppets of Team America: World Police debuted in third, and Shall We Dance? landed solidly in fourth place.  The rest of the top ten all had fairly strong holds from last weekend.

For the third straight weekend, Will Smith and company took Shark Tale to the top of the box office.  Down a small 30% from last week, the DreamWorks animated feature grossed $22M, according to final figures, bringing its cume to a toothy $118.7M.  Shark Tale becomes only the second film of 2004 to threepeat atop the charts, with The Passion of the Christ doing the deed three consecutive weekends in February/March, and four times overall.

In second place was the football drama, Friday Night Lights, which fell 40% from last weekend, tackling another $12.2M and bringing its cume to $37.8M.  Look for the Billy Bob Thornton starrer to end its run with a solid $75-80M.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone returned to theaters with Team America: World Police, which shot up a somewhat disappointing $12.1M this weekend for a per screen average of $4,773.  The small 3% Friday-to-Saturday increase does not bode well for the future.  Critical reviews were mixed and Yahoo! users gave the film a B grade.  Back in 1999, the duo's South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut opened with $11.3M on its way to a cume of $52M.

Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon headlined Shall We Dance?, which grossed $11.7M this weekend from 1,772 playdates, for a per screen average of $6,649.  This is Jennifer Lopez's biggest opening weekend since 2002's Maid in Manhattan which opened with $18M on its way to a $94M cume.  This is the biggest opening weekend for a Susan Sarandon film (excluding voice-over work) since 1998's Stepmom, which opened with $19M.

In fifth place were the guys from Ladder 49, which took in $8.5M, bringing its cume up to $53.7M.  Driving into sixth place were Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah in Taxi, which grossed $7.9M, down 34% from last weekend.  Its cume now stands at $23.9M and should end its run with $40-45M.

In seventh place was Julianne Moore in The Forgotten.  Down only 21% from last weekend, the supernatural thriller brought in $6M, bringing its total to $57.1M.  In eighth place was the Hillary Duff starrer, Raise Your Voice, which fell 31% from last weekend to $2.75M, bringing its total to $7.9M.  The movie should end its run with $17-20M and find a much larger audience on DVD.

In ninth place for the second straight weekend was the Che Guevara drama, The Motorcycle Diaries.  Up 16% from last weekend, the Focus Features release took in $1.75M from only 250 screens, for a per screen average of $7,024, tops in the top ten.  Its total now stands at $5.75M.  Rounding out the top ten was Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which added another $1.2M to its bankroll, bringing its cume to $35.9M.

In limited release news, Fox Searchlight continued its successful expansion of I Heart Huckabees, which grossed $914,880 from 65 theaters, for a per screen average of $14,075.  Its cume now stands at $2.6M.  RBC Radio's Guiana 1838 continued its strong run, grossing $21,366 from only 2 screens, for a per screen average of $10,683, bringing its total to $144,856.

The top ten films grossed $86.2M, which was down 13% from 2003 when The Texas Chainsaw Massacre slaughtered the competition opening with $28M but up 27.5% from 2002 when The Ring lead the way with $15M.

Compared to projections, Team America: World Police came in below my $18M prediction, while Shall We Dance? came in above my $7M forecast.

For reviews of Team America: World Police and The Motorcycle Diaries, visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when The Grudge and Surviving Christmas both open.

Marketplace: Shop for videos, DVDs, music, books, and posters at discounted prices using search engines

# Title Oct 15 - 17 Oct 8 - 10 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Shark Tale $ 22,005,952 $ 31,330,299 -29.8 3,948 3 $ 5,574 $ 118,724,863 DreamWorks
2 Friday Night Lights 12,216,880 20,269,025 -39.7 2,764 2 4,420 37,819,455 Universal
3 Team America: World Police 12,120,358 2,539 1 4,774 12,120,358 Paramount
4 Shall We Dance? 11,783,467 1,772 1 6,650 11,783,467 Miramax
5 Ladder 49 8,503,420 13,105,177 -35.1 3,255 3 2,612 53,747,377 Buena Vista
6 Taxi 7,891,169 12,029,832 -34.4 3,001 2 2,630 23,891,719 Fox
7 The Forgotten 6,007,726 7,605,742 -21.0 2,768 4 2,170 57,160,305 Sony
8 Raise Your Voice 2,757,809 4,022,693 -31.4 2,521 2 1,094 7,902,305 New Line
9 The Motorcycle Diaries 1,756,157 1,510,020 16.3 250 4 7,025 5,748,162 Focus
10 Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow 1,218,417 2,341,872 -48.0 1,208 5 1,009 35,899,489 Paramount
11 Shaun of the Dead 1,109,997 1,708,113 -35.0 672 4 1,652 11,269,702 Focus
12 I Heart Huckabees 914,880 901,123 1.5 65 3 14,075 2,600,993 Fox Searchlight
13 Napoleon Dynamite 883,817 1,056,903 -16.4 619 19 1,428 40,371,730 Fox Searchlight
14 Woman Thou Art Loosed 691,448 1,147,388 -39.7 434 3 1,593 5,099,502 Magnolia
15 Resident Evil: Apocalypse 673,272 1,253,117 -46.3 787 6 855 50,138,512 Sony
16 Cellular 574,385 953,657 -39.8 741 6 775 30,653,555 New Line
17 Garden State 452,519 569,160 -20.5 301 12 1,503 25,242,957 Fox Searchlight
18 What the #$*! Do We Know? 368,134 366,184 0.5 132 23 2,789 6,103,766 Goldwyn
19 The Bourne Supremacy 353,005 396,610 -11.0 346 13 1,020 174,363,530 Universal
20 Hero 352,984 657,625 -46.3 395 8 894 52,807,621 Miramax
Top 5 $ 66,630,077 $ 84,340,075 -21.0
Top 10 86,261,355 95,175,890 -9.4
Top 20 92,635,796 103,279,150 -10.3
Top 20 vs. 2003 92,635,796 109,338,650 -15.3

Last Updated : October 18, 2004 at 11:30PM EDT

Gitesh Pandya can be seen each Friday on "The Biz" airing live at 12:30pm ET on CNNfn with a replay at 4:30pm.