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Everything didn't come up roses for some of 8/04's other titles - you had your standard-issue doses of noisy animated kids' TV adaptation (Yu-Gi-Oh!, at $19 million), much-delayed little thriller (Suspect Zero; $8 million), and demonically inexplicable sequel (SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2... wait, what??..... $8 million). Brittany Murphy's star vehicle, Little Black Book, didn't do as well as her August '03 title Uptown Girls ($20 million in '04 compared to $37 million in '03).

And finally, while hatred for horror remakes hasn't been particularly well-masked in the pages of this decade report, affection for horror sequels is something I'm always eager to express. But even I didn't go ga-ga for the trifecta of sequels that August 2004 delivered - Alien vs. Predator (8/13), Exorcist: The Beginning (8/20) and Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (8/27). A v P was a project buzzed about by fans of the two franchises for years now, and the success of Freddy vs. Jason in August '03 made it possible. Despite that sourpussed PG-13 rating, the movie did fine - $38 million opening, $80 million total. I don't think anybody was expecting good legs here, and we certainly didn't get any. The Exorcist prequel - the fourth film in the series - survived a long and troubled production history to finish off with $41 million. How odd that was, especially considering the low fanfare reserved for the second (1977) and third (1990) films in the franchise. As for Anacondas - Anaconda 2, really - I have no idea why anyone would have wanted to make this one, but it did gross about $31 million. Clearly, we were getting to that pivotal point in 2000s history when horror movies started to make money simply by existing - and there was no better early demonstration of that fact than August 2004's trio of terror.

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