Rank
Title
Weekend
Gross
Cumulative
Gross
Weeks in Release
1

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

$101,400,000

$101,400,000

1
2

Walk the Line

$22,400,000

$22,400,000

1
3

Chicken Little

$14,700,000

$99,100,000

3
4

Derailed

$6,500,000

$21,800,000

2
5

Zathura

$5,100,000

$20,200,000

2
6

Jarhead

$4,800,000

$54,300,000

3
7

Get Rich or Die Tryin’

$4,300,000

$24,500,000

2
8

Saw II

$3,900,000
$79,800,000
4
9

Legend of Zorro

$2,300,000
$42,700,000
4
10

Pride and Prejudice

$2,100,000
$5,900,000
2

Well I’ll be damned — people do actually still go to the movies after all. Especially when it’s a movie based on the most popular books since the adventures of Jesus. Despite the diminishing returns on the sequels and the first PG-13 rating for the young spellcaster, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire not only had the largest opening weekend of the franchise but also set a November record, stuffing 9 figures into Warner Bros.’ bag of holding. Wizard!

Many levels below, the story of the harelipped Man in Black opened to a melodious twang, kicking Chicken Little aside for the season’s first big biopic. Unless you count Jarhead, I guess. And then there are the quality flicks that are unfortunately being largely ignored by audiences… namely Zathura and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the latter of which is the most universally adored movie among the CHUD staff since Shaun of the Dead. Sigh. So much for influence. 

Next week puts a number of steaming dishes on the table for the holiday feast: the family comedy Yours, Mine and Ours, the fat-suit comedy Just Friends, the dark comedy The Ice Harvest and the tardy musical Rent, plus limited releases of the oil drama Syriana and the excess exercise The Libertine.