BOX OFFICE SETS NEW RECORD -- BARELY
Tuesday, January 4 2005
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Thanks to two films that the major studios had rejected, the 2004 domestic box office managed to beat out the 2003 box office, according to final figures released Monday by Nielsen EDI. The difference between the two years' totals was slim, however, just half a percent -- $9.21 billion in 2004; $9.17 billion in 2003. (Figures released by Exhibitor Relations were slightly higher.) If Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is removed from the equation, the box office shortfall would amount to more than 6 percent. Moreover, the number of tickets sold during the year fell 2.5 percent. (Since 2002, the number is down 7.5 percent.) Sony was the top-grossing studio with $1.2 billion in ticket sales. Warner Bros. was close behind in second place with $1.19 billion, followed by Disney with $1.14 billion. Twentieth Century Fox was fourth with $933 million. DreamWorks came in fifth with $926 million. Universal landed in sixth place with $837 million, while Paramount ended up with $613 million. Overseas, Time Warner was the top grosser with a record $2.6 billion, well above Disney's second-place $1.9 billion. The top-grossing movies of 2004: 1. Shrek 2, $436.5 million; 2. Spider-Man 2, $373.4 million; 3. The Passion of the Christ, $370.3 million; 4. The Incredibles, $251.6 million; 5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, $249.4 million; 6. The Day After Tomorrow, $186.7 million; 7. The Bourne Supremacy, $176.2 million; 8. Meet the Fockers, $162.5 million; 9. Shark Tale, $159.7 million; 10. The Polar Express, $155.1 million
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