AS 2004 recedes into the distance, there’s already reason to feel nostalgic. True, as far as box office returns go, the year was a wobbly one. Although as The Hollywood Reporter estimated last week, overall box office crept up to a record US$9.53bil (RM36.21bil), ticket sales actually slipped to 1.53 billion, a disquieting development because it represents the second drop in two years.  

If it were not for the entirely unpredictable box office success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 – between them, the two films grossed nearly US$500mil (RM1.9bil) domestically – the year would have been even more downbeat. But at the same time it proved to be a provocative year on which to report. Both Passion and Fahrenheit broke out of the entertainment pages and ricocheted through the culture.