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2004 total: $41.1 million
Top film: "Being Julia" ($3.6 million)

While Sony Pictures Classics had several moderate successes throughout the year, it saved its potentially best for last. As year-end approached, the director-driven studio moved into high gear, fielding such Oscar contenders as the Annette Bening starrer "Being Julia," Zhang Yimou's visually stunning "House of Flying Daggers," Pedro Almodovar's noirish "Bad Education," the Al Pacino starrer "William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice" and Dan Harris' directorial debut, the American indie "Imaginary Heroes."

"We're in the middle of what we're most proud of," SPC co-head Michael Barker says. "We've got five films at year-end of major quality and major distinction. We have high hopes for all these pictures for awards and 10-best lists consideration."

During the first half of the year, SPC cultivated the German-language "Good bye, Lenin!" the South Korean "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring" and the surfing documentary "Riding Giants," which grossed $2.3 million.

In October, SPC began its year-end push. It opened "Being Julia" on eight screens to $101,126. Since then, the film has grossed $3.6 million, receiving a best actress Golden Globe nomination for Bening. "Bad Education," starring Gael Garcia Bernal, bowed in November to $147,370 on three screens, beating Almodovar's previous opening, 2002's "Talk to Her." SPC is pursuing a slow rollout of "Daggers," the latest entry from martial arts master Zhang ("Hero").