'Fockers' helps U.S. box office reach record

Ben Stiller

LOS ANGELES - North American box office champ "Meet the Fockers" helped push overall movie sales to a new record in 2004, and the sequel film earned almost as much after two weekends as the original, "Meet the Parents," drew in its entire run, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

"Meet the Fockers," a lowbrow family comedy starring Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman, easily retained the No. 1 position at the New Year holiday box office. It sold about $42.8 million worth of tickets in the three days beginning Friday, setting two records in the process. Its total after 12 days rose to $163.4 million. "Meet the Parents," released in October 2000, ended its run with $166 million.

Both films were distributed in North America by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co. -controlled NBC Universal, which split the budget with closely held DreamWorks SKG.

For the year, ticket sales totaled $9.4 billion, up 1.4 percent from the 2003 take of $9.27 billion, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. The previous record was $9.32 billion in 2002.

Higher ticket prices were responsible for the increase, as fewer people went to the movies for a second consecutive year, the firm said. It estimated that 1.51 billion tickets were sold last year, down 1.7 percent from 1.54 billion in 2003. The contemporary record of 1.6 billion was set in 2002. (Exhibitor Relations said more people went to the movies in the 1930s and 1940s, when upward of 80 million tickets were sold weekly.)

The most popular movie in 2004 was "Shrek 2," which grossed $436 million, followed by Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" with $373 million and "Spider-Man 2" with $370 million.

Exhibitor Relations president Paul Dergarabedian said highly anticipated releases for 2005 include the resurrection of the "Batman" franchise, the final "Star Wars" movie, and remakes of "King Kong" by Peter Jackson and "The War of the Worlds" by Steven Spielberg.

NEW HOLIDAY RECORDS

"Meet the Fockers" set two records over the weekend. Its Friday haul of $12.2 million was the best for New Year's Eve, beating "Cast Away's" four-year-old record of $8.5 million. It continued its winning ways the next day with sales of $18 million, surpassing the New Year's Day record of $12.8 million set last year by "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." Universal estimated "Fockers" accounted for about one-third of weekend box office sales.

As usual for this time of the year, there were no new releases in the top 10, and the rankings were little changed. The children's comedy "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," starring Jim Carrey, held steady at a distant No. 2 with $14.7 million, taking its total to $94.8 million after three weekends.

Director Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biographical film "The Aviator," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the reclusive billionaire, rose one place to No. 3 with $11.2 million. It has earned $31.1 million after two weekends in moderate release.

The TV cartoon adaptation "Fat Albert" fell one to No. 4 with $10.7 million, for a nine-day haul of $33.9 million. The all-star crime caper "Ocean's Twelve" was stable at No. 5 with $9.2 million. After four weeks, it has earned $106.9 million -- about $30 million less than what its 2001 predecessor "Ocean's 11" had made at the same time.

"Lemony Snicket" was released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc . "The Aviator" was released by Miramax Films, a unit of Walt Disney Co . "Fat Albert" was released by Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.'s. Fox Entertainment Group Inc .

"Ocean's Twelve" was released by Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc, which partnered on the project with Village Roadshow Ltd.

- REUTERS