January 13th, 2004

Quite A Catch

It was a box office battle over the weekend as The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King faced a head-on battle with the Tim Burton helmed Big Fish. Sony estimated that "Fish" beat LOTR, but when the final numbers came around yesterday, it was the other way around. Nonetheless, the final installment of the beloved trilogy took a dip of nearly 50 percent with 14.2 million while "Fish" got off to a good start with 13.8 million.

In third place and crossing 100 million was the family comedy Cheaper By The Dozen with 11.7 million. Cold Mountain brought in another 7.8 million while Something's Gotta Give took in another 7.7 million. Two newcomers got off to somewhat weak starts: My Baby's Daddy brought in in 7.5 million while the Mandy Moore teen romance Chasing Liberty brought in a partly 6 million.

Rounding out the top ten were three December releases: Paycheck (5.1 million), The Last Samurai (4.5 million and about to cross 100 million) and Mona Lisa Smile (4.3 million).

-Zach B.