Billion Dollar Box Office

February 24, 2004

It took a couple days longer than expected, but Lord of the Rings: Return of the King crossed the $1 billion mark over the weekend. The weekend total of $13.9 million was also good enough for first place on the international charts. Internationally it is still in third place behind Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but that should change by the weekend.

Just missing out at top spot was Something's Gotta Give with $13.7 million. Like its domestic performance, this film is showing long legs internationally having earned $60 million so far.

Hoping to take advantage of the upcoming Oscars Cold Mountain was released in more than 2 dozen markets over the weekend. Unsurprisingly, a movie about the American Civil War was a tough sell in most foreign market earning a reported $9.9 million. (Russian results were unreported at press time.)

Another milestone was reached mid-week when The Last Samurai topped $300 million. A large portion of its success can be attributed to the film's performance in Japan and Ken Watanabe's Oscar nominated performance.

Rounding out the top five is The Haunted Mansion, which earned $7.5 million. That figure is up slightly from last weekend and puts its worldwide total to $118 million, within striking distance of its total budget.


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Source: Variety

Filed under: International Box Office, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Something's Gotta Give, The Last Samurai, Cold Mountain, The Haunted Mansion