December 23rd, 2003

"King" Of The World

There was no shock that The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King took the number one spot over the weekend, breaking box office worldwide. Taking in 72.6 domestically (and making 124 million since opening last Wednesday), the crticially praised end to the beloved trilogy is pretty much a lock for some major awards. Running a bit over 3 hours, the movie should outgross last year's "The Two Towers" and has a good shot at breaking 1 billion dollars worldwide.

In a very distant second was the Julia Roberts period drama Mona Lisa Smile with a mediocre 11.5 million, though it could hold steady in the next few weeks. In third was Something's Gotta Give with 11.4 million while The Last Samurai took a pretty big slip with 7.7 milion. Bringing in another 5.5 million was the family Christmas comedy Elf.

In sixth place, Stuck On You took a stumble and brought in 5.2 million this weekend and probably will die out quickly. Bad Santa is definitely a sleeper hit, bringing in 5.1 over the weekend while the Eddie Murphy dud The Haunted Mansion took in 3.9 million. Rounding out the top ten were the urban films Love Don't Cost A Thing and Honey with takes of 3.7 and 2.7 million.

Will some Christmas Day movie entries able to top Frodo and friends? Stay tuned, DVD fans!

-Zach B.