National Treasure is a 2004 American action-adventure film released by Walt Disney Pictures.  National Treasure was released worldwide on November 19, 2004. The film grossed $347 million worldwide. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes called it fun but criticizes the plot. A sequel, titled National Treasure: Book of Secrets, was released in December 2007.National Treasure earned $11 million on its opening day in the United States, ahead of Paramount & Nickelodeon's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.It grossed a combined total of $35,142,554 during its opening weekend, on 4,300 screens at 3,243 theaters, averaging $11,648 per venue, again ahead of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.It held on to the No. 1 spot for three weekends. In Japan National Treasure bested out the double-billing MegaMan NT Warrior: Program of Light and Dark and Duel Masters: Curse of the Deathphoenix by grossing $11,666,763 in its first week. The film closed on June 2, 2005 with its domestic gross being $173,008,894 while earning $174,503,424 internationally. Worldwide, National Treasure grossed over $347,512,318, against a budget of $100 million.Academic David Bordwell has expressed a liking for the film, placing it in the tradition of 1950s Disney children's adventure movies,and using it as the basis for an essay on scene transitions in classical Hollywood cinema.