WINNING DAY FOR NEW 'PARENTS'.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

The comedy ``Meet the Fockers'' introduced itself to the record books as the best Christmas day money earner in box office history, grossing an estimated $19.1 million Saturday.

While overall business was hurt by Christmas Eve falling on a Friday - the second biggest moviegoing night of the week - ``Fockers'' on Saturday easily surpassed the $14 million grossed by previous record-holder ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' on Christmas 2003.

``Fockers,'' the Universal Pictures release that opened Wednesday, already has a five-day gross of $68.5 million.

``Despite the fact that Friday was down a bit, they did terrific business on Saturday and took advantage of the Christmas holiday,'' said box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. ``This obviously was the first choice for people wanting to take in a movie after their Christmas morning activities.''

The sequel to 2000's ``Meet the Parents,'' ``Fockers'' reunited original cast members Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner and added Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand to the mix as the wacky parents of Stiller's character. ``Fockers'' marked Streisand's first film appearance since 1996's ``The Mirror Has Two Faces.''

The live-action version of ``Fat Albert,'' which opened on Christmas Day, took second place with a two-day gross of $12.7 million. The 20th Century Fox comedy, based on Bill Cosby's popular 1970s animated series, played mostly to families and teens.

``It's a great number, and we're delighted,'' said Bruce Snyder, Fox's president of domestic distribution. ``We are playing to a lot of teenagers in the 9 o'clock shows, so it's very promising for the future.''

Last weekend's No. 1 film, ``Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'' starring Jim Carrey, dropped to third place with a three-day gross of $12.5 million. That represented a 58 percent drop from the previous weekend due to low Christmas Eve grosses.

With an overall gross of $59.3 million and kids out of school for another week, ``Snicket'' is on track to become Paramount Pictures' first $100 million grossing 2004 release.

Miramax Films' Oscar hopeful ``The Aviator,'' starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, widened to 1,756 locations during its second weekend and landed in fourth place with an estimated three-day gross of $9.4 million. The Martin Scorsese-directed epic had opened in 40 theaters last weekend.

``Basically, the three things that attracted everyone were Scorsese, DiCaprio and the story,'' said Mike Rudinsky, Miramax's executive vice president of domestic distribution. ``We are very pleased with the opening numbers.''

In a successful counter-programming move, Dimension Films opened the horror movie ``Darkness'' on Christmas Day, scaring up enough ticket sales to end up in sixth place with an estimated gross of $6.4 million.

Warner Bros.' holiday hit ``The Polar Express'' remained in the top 10 for the seventh weekend in a row, finishing in seventh place with an estimated weekend gross of $6.3 million. The film, expected to finally run out of steam after the holidays, has overcome a slow start and some scathing reviews to earn $140 million domestically.

``Polar'' was one of three Warner Bros. films in the top 10. ``Ocean's Twelve'' dropped to fifth place in its third weekend with ticket sales of $8.6 million and has an overall gross of $86.9 million, while ``Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera'' opened in 10th place. ``Phantom,'' playing in just 622 locations, grossed an estimated $4.2 million.

Landing in ninth place was Disney's ``The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,'' which began playing in 1,105 theaters on Christmas Day. Starring Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, the film grossed an estimated $4.8 million. ``Aquatic'' had been in limited release for two weeks and has earned $5.3 million to date.

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

TOP MOVIES

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures were to be released today.

1. ``Meet the Fockers,'' $44.7 million.

2. ``Fat Albert,'' 12.7 million.

3. ``Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events,'' $12.5 million.

4. ``The Aviator,'' $9.4 million.

5. ``Ocean's Twelve,'' $8.6 million.

6. ``Darkness,'' $6.4 million.

7. ``The Polar Express,'' $6.3 million.

8. ``Spanglish,'' $5 million.

9. ``The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,'' $4.8 million.

10. ``Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera,'' $4.2 million.

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TOP MOVIES (see text)