Twenty years ago at the summer box office, the foul-mouthed merc was but an on-screen dream and Wolverine was two years away from appearing in a third X-Men movie.
Back in the summer of 2004, sequels ruled the day, including a superhero film that has been reimagined multiple times since.
In previous years on The Journey of Now blog, the above would serve as an introduction to a tournament of favorite films from the ghosts of box office past. Polls would be posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) and further back, on Facebook, pitting the top-64 box office films in a certain category against one another. The winners were decided by the voters, including the many summer box office tournaments (May thru August) over the years.
Sadly, the tournament is paused for now. But we shall not bypass the glorious summer box office of 2004 altogether. Quotable comedies, star-making romance films, and plenty of others would have duked it out to claim the top spot.
Top-seeds of each region
Sequels (or films part of a series) ruled the summer box office of 2004, with nearly 25 percent of the top-40 films that summer falling into this category.
The top film of the summer, and for the whole year, was the animated film Shrek 2. Released in May, this film had a domestic box office total of over 441 million dollars. (And currently sits at over 444 million, placing it as the 30th-highest domestic total of all-time).
Second best for that summer and year was a little-known vehicle known as Spider-Man 2, which feels like 100 Spider-Man films ago. This film, released in June 2004, is revered by many as the best of the Tobey Maguire trilogy and gave fans the fantastic Alfred Molina as Doc Ock.
The July region was topped by another sequel in The Bourne Supremacy, featuring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Brian Cox, Karl Urban, and Joan Allen, to name a few. And in August, Collateral took the top spot.
This film often flies under the radar, but it is among my favorites. Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are phenomenal and director Michael Mann and writer Stuart Beattie draw out the tension from the opening scenes.
These four films were tops that summer and they were accompanied by plenty of memorable (and not so memorable) films that year.
Top-ten from each region
A new era of comedy, spanning roughly 10 years, was ushered in early in 2003 with the film Old School. And in 2004, the coals were burning hot with Anchorman and Dodgeball (to name two). Anchorman is still heavily quoted, thanks to memes and gifs, and a consistently funny movie, even today.
Recently, I caught the last 30 minutes of Dodgeball and remembered how funny it was, even if not as quotable. Though Rip Torn's "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball" is still used regularly among my group of friends.
White Chicks is adored by a subset of film fans, though I would be hard pressed to say the same about Without a Paddle.
Epic films were supposed to carry the box office that summer. While films like Troy, The Village, King Arthur, and I, Robot brought in decent money, I feel like none lived up to the pre-release billing. Catwoman with Halle Berry was deemed a bust and The Village saw the early signs of M. Night Shyamalan's downfall, though he has been able to resurrect his career in recent years.
Star-launching vehicles were also part of the 2004 summer. Rachel McAdams, fresh off Mean Girls (just outside the summer window with an April 30 release), cemented her status with the success of The Notebook.
This film also saw Ryan Gosling move into a new tax bracket with those early building blocks of success.
Zach Braff was already a television star but his directorial debut Garden State struck a chorus with fans that summer. And fans were treated to pre-superstar turns from Anne Hathaway and Chris Pine (Princess Diaries 2)
These were but a few of the stars still making quality films, blockbusters among them, in 2024. Here are the top ten box office earners from each month in the summer of 2004:
May
- 1- Shrek 2
- 2- Day After Tomorrow
- 3- Troy
- 4- Van Helsing
- 5- Raising Helen
- 6- Soul Plane
- 7- New York Minute
- 8- Breakin' All the Rules
- 9- Super Size Me
- 10- Saved!
June
- 1- Spider-Man 2
- 2- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- 3- Fahrenheit 9/11
- 4- Dodgeball
- 5-The Notebook
- 6- The Terminal
- 7- Garfield
- 8- White Chicks
- 9- Stepford Wives
- 10- Chronicles of Riddick
July
- 1- The Bourne Supremacy
- 2- I, Robot
- 3- The Village
- 4- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
- 5- The Manchurian Candidate
- 6- King Arthur
- 7- Cinderella Story
- 8- Catwoman
- 9- Garden State
- 10- Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
August
- 1- Collateral
- 2- The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
- 3- Alien vs Predator
- 4- Without a Paddle
- 5- Hero
- 6- Exorcist: The Beginning
- 7- Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
- 8- Open Water
- 9- Little Black Book
- 10- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light
A wide range of movies touched the summer of 2004, bringing forth the good and the bad. Some launched a series (Harold and Kumar) and another gave us the last film Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen starred in together (New York Minute).
And one, a small independent film, will likely live on forever in the hearts of filmgoers.
Napoleon Dynamite
Here's the honest truth: I have never been the biggest fan of Napoleon Dynamite.
Now, I will say it's not a bad film. And I certainly laughed at moments and identified with certain scenes. But overall, I did not think it was the masterpiece many believe it to be.
But in the summer of 2004, this film took the world by storm and earned enough money at the domestic box office to place no. 11 in the June region. I have a feeling if this were a tournament, the film would have reached the final eight for sure.
This film entered the zeitgeist and has refused to leave. I do believe I suffered from not seeing the film until far later in the year (or early 2005), after it had been hyped and quoted beyond belief.
In some ways, however, it provided that slice of hope for aspiring filmmakers everywhere they, too, might achieve great success. To see a little-film-that-could make it to the big time and provide opportunities for cast and crew alike.
Thanks for stopping by for this look back at the summer box of 2004. Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go eat some tater tots and try to throw a football over the mountains.
photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
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