According to The Hollywood Reporter, As the industry enters the lucrative seven-week year-end holiday season, the marketplace expanded to accommodate two new arrivals that landed at the high end of expectations. Buena Vista's National Treasure dug up an estimated $35.3 million to debut in the top spot, while Paramount's 2-D animated The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie absorbed a better-than-expected estimate of $33.5 million to place second on its opening session.

The debut of the PG-rated National Treasure, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Nicolas Cage, proved to be a personal best for Cage and director Jon Turteltaub. And "SpongeBob," which also carried a PG rating and was directed by its creator, Stephen Hillenburg, secured the biggest opening ever for Nickelodeon Movies and demonstrated that 2-D animation is far from dead.

After a successful debut the previous weekend in a moderate 530 theaters, Universal's Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason added 1,920 venues and took in an estimated $10.1 million on its first weekend in wide release. The romantic comedy from Working Title Films, starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, placed fifth and has a 10-day cume of an estimated $21.6 million.

National Treasure was released November 19th, 2004 and stars Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer, David Dayan Fisher. The film is directed by Jon Turteltaub.