Closer Closes in the Top Five

December 6, 2004

As expected, there was a big drop at the box office over the weekend, but there were a couple of surprises as the semi-limited release, Closer, out performed expectations to finish in fifth place. Overall the box office dropped to $87 million over the weekend, that's a massive 46% drop from last week, but more importantly, a nearly 11% drop from last year. That dropped 2004's lead over 2003 to just 2.2%, but things should pick up this week with the Wednesday release of Blade: Trinity and the Friday release of Ocean's Twelve.

National Treasure continued its reign at the top with $17.1 million this weekend. It easily crossed $100 million at the box office and now sits at a surprising $110 million.

Second place went not to The Incredibles but to Christmas with the Kranks. The film dropped less than 50% during its second weekend at the box office pulling in $11.2 million.

The Polar Express moved up a spot to third place with $10.8 million and is not just a week from hitting $100 million. But given the cost of this movie, it might not be enough to prevent some people from losing their jobs over this film's performance at the box office.

The Incredibles, which have the best reviews in the top ten, dropped all the way to fourth place with just $9.2 million. This is a strong result for a film in its fifth week of release, but not as strong as it deserves.

Closer, the widest new release of the weekend, manage a fifth place finish in a close battle with SpongeBob SquarePants. The Mike Nicoles film took fifth place by just over $50,000 with $7.7 million. This is more than enough to justify a wide expansion over the coming weeks, however, with mediocre reviews the studio better act fast or poor word-of-mouth will likely hurt the film at the box office.


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Filed under: The Incredibles, The Polar Express, National Treasure, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie, Christmas with the Kranks, Closer