"Shrek 2" Rules Record '04

It was a monster year for Tinseltown.

DreamWorks' Shrek 2 not only gobbled up plenty of green--$436 million in ticket sales on its way to being crowned the top-grossing film of 2004--but the ogre-iffic sequel also finished its run as the third biggest film of all time at the North American box office.

Overall, according to figures released Monday by box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, domestic movie receipts totaled $9.4 billion for 2004, an increase of 1.4 percent over 2003 and surpassing 2002's record tally of $9.3 billion.

Swinging into second place behind the mean green money machine was Sony's Spider-Man 2, which nabbed $373.4 million. That was followed by Mel Gibson's Jesus epic, The Passion of the Christ, which redeemed $370.3 million.

Rounding out the top five were Pixar's The Incredibles, with an incredible $251.7 million in receipts, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which conjured up $249.4 million.

Despite the record haul for '04, attendance actually declined for the second year in a row by 1.7 percent. Exhibitor Relations reports 1.6 billion movie tickets were sold in 2002, 1.53 billion in 2003 and 1.51 billion last year.

"It's a record-breaking box office year. That's the good news. The bad news is attendance is down for the second straight year," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, noting that audiences may have been distracted by stiff competition from videogames and DVDs and the fact that it was an election year.

With fewer people spinning turnstiles at the local megaplex, higher prices accounted for the uptick in box-office revenue. The average ticket cost was up 3.1 percent to $6.22. By comparison, 2002's average movie cost was $5.80.

"Whenever we break a record it's almost always because of higher ticket prices," said Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com. "The higher ticket prices are what Hollywood should give thanks to for these new records. It's not really people going to more movies."

There's also the Rings factor. "One of the reasons for the drop [in attendance] was because for the first time in three years we did not have a Lord of the Rings movie to give us that big year-end surge," said Pandya. "Meet the Fockers stepped up to the plate and was a heavy hitter but did not compare to Hobbits and wizards."

But Hollywood definitely got more bang for its buck in 2004. While the studios didn't have nearly as many flicks crossing the coveted $100 million mark--only 22 by Pandya's count compared to the 30 hit films that had done so in 2003--this year's batch accounted for a bigger slice of the gross.

"All three of [the top] films, Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2 and The Passion were bigger [hits] than the previous years," said Pandya.

Here's a rundown of the top 20 films of 2004, according to Exhibitor Relations.

1. Shrek 2, $436 million
2. Spider-Man 2, $373 million
3. The Passion of the Christ, $370 million
4. The Incredibles, $251 million
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, $249 million
6. The Day After Tomorrow, $186 million
7. The Bourne Supremacy, $176 million
8. Meet the Fockers, $163.4 million
9. Shark Tale, $159 million
10. The Polar Express, $155 million
11. National Treasure, $154 million
12. I Robot, $144 million
13. Troy, $133 million
14. 50 First Dates, $120 million
15. Van Helsing, $120 million
16. Fahrenheit 9/11, $115 million
17. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, $114 million
18. The Village, $114 million
19. The Grudge, $110 million
20. Ocean's Twelve, $110 million