DreamWorks' animated feature "Shark Tale" led North American box office receipts for the weekend of 17 October 2004, earning $22 million to bring its three-week domestic total to $118.7 million, according to Exhibitor Relations Co.
Billy Bob Thornton's high school football drama "Friday Night Lights," set in small-town Texas, held second place for a second consecutive weekend with $12.2 million. Just behind it, the marionette comedy "Team America: World Police" opened with $12.1 million. Created by the makers of the animated series "South Park," the film sends puppet heroes against terrorists led by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. Released three weeks before the US presidential election, it drew wide controversy for its satirical treatment of the war on terror.
The romantic comedy "Shall We Dance?," starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, and Susan Sarandon, finished fourth with $11.7 million. John Travolta's firefighting film "Ladder 49" dropped to fifth at $8.5 million, and "Taxi," pairing Queen Latifah with Jimmy Fallon, took sixth at $7.8 million.
Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal's Che Guevara biography "The Motorcycle Diaries" placed ninth at $1.7 million, and retro science-fiction spectacle "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" rounded out the top 10 with $1.2 million.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.