The Friday box office saw the hit dog flick Marley & Me still winning by a comfortable margin as the overall Christmas weekend remained explosive. Despite the day not being a holiday for all, moviegoers spent an estimated $63M on the top ten films dipping just 5% from Thursday's Christmas bonanza. With Saturday and Sunday activity expected to remain brisk, ticket buyers across North America will end up dumping over a quarter of a billion dollars into multiplex cash registers across the four-day holiday weekend.
Fox enjoyed another spectacular performance from its Owen Wilson-Jennifer Aniston family drama Marley & Me which grossed an estimated $14M on Friday, down 6% from Thursday's record-breaking opening day. The pooch pic now looks certain to win the entire weekend possibly collecting $35-40M over the Friday-to-Sunday span and a terrific $50-55M across the four-day Thursday-to-Sunday period.

Paramount's reverse aging drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Disney's adventure comedy Bedtime Stories both took in roughly $10M on Friday in their second day in theaters. The Brad Pitt pic skewed older to an audience more likely to have work on Friday and was hit harder falling 14% from Thursday while the Adam Sandler film dipped by 7%. Both films will be fighting over second place for the weekend and should collect just north of $25M over three days and a little over $35M for four days. The performance is more impressive for Button since it is playing in 700 fewer theaters and runs one hour longer.

Tom Cruise's war thriller Valkyrie eased 3% to an estimated $8M on Friday and is heading for a fourth place finish. The weekend bow should reach $21-24M while the four-day tally looks to end in the vicinity of $30M for MGM. With four different movies opening to $30M or more over the long weekend, the marketplace is expanding to accommodate the variety of product with all audience segments finding something worth spending money on.

More star-driven films followed. Jim Carrey's Yes Man grossed an estimated $6M on Friday and is looking to score about $20M over four days. The Will Smith drama Seven Pounds took in an estimated $4.8M on Friday and could find its way to $16-18M over the long holiday weekend.

Universal's animated entry The Tale of Despereaux saw sales surge 60% from Thursday to Friday to an estimated $3.2M. A four-day score of about $12M should result. The only new wide release to stumble was Lionsgate's actioner The Spirit which tumbled 33% in its second day to an estimated $2.5M. The three-day tally could finish with $7M while the long weekend debut will end with around $11M.

http://www.boxofficeguru.com/122708.htm

Wonderful!

Wow, everyone was off on Desperaux. Though that's still really good, and it should see a pretty small decline for the weekend.

I figured the openers would either hold or decrease yesterday, but that's still really good for all of them. Again, it looks like we'll have FOUR movie opening with over $20 million, which is just...insane.

From Deadline Hollywood:

As for other Oscar-buzzed pics: Fox Searchlight's Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle came in 13th place with $1.3M Thursday and $1.4M Friday on 614 plays. Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino for Warner Bros was #15 despite playing in only 84 theaters for $759K Thursday and $764K Friday for the best Top 20 per screen averages of $9,107 and $9,167 respectively. Look for the pic to pop when it goes wide into 2,400 theaters on January 9th. Paramount's Revolutionary Road starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio debuted on 3 screens for $67K Friday and the best per screen average of $22,216 Friday.

when will Revolutionary Road expanded?

good to see rev road play well even though the film disappointed me

MCN:

Marley and Me 14 3480 . 28.4
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 10.2 2988 . 21.8
Bedtime Stories 10 3681 . 20.2
Valkyrie 8.1 2711 . 16.4
Yes Man 5.9 3434 -10%. 39
Seven Pounds 4.7 2756 -9%. 30.3
The Tale of Despereaux 3.2 3107 -11%. 21.7
The Day the Earth Stood Still 2.7 2402 -5% 58.4
The Spirit 2.6 2509 . 6.4
Doubt 1.8 1267 .880% 4.9
Also Debuting
Ghajini 0.26 83 . 0.26
Revolutionary Road 65,500 3 . 65,500
Last Chance Harvey 30.700 6 . 30,700
Waltz With Bashir 19.200 10 . 19,200

http://www.moviecitynews.com/

I don't see them on the site? Am I blind?

They're in their usual spot in the top left corner...

SBD:

1. MARLEY & ME FOX 3,480 14,025,000 4,030 n/a 28,625,000
2. CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, THE PARAMOUNT 2,988 10,195,000 3,412 n/a 22,075,000
3. BEDTIME STORIES DISNEY 3,681 9,980,000 2,711 n/a 20,395,000
4. VALKYRIE MGM 2,711 8,210,000 3,028 n/a 16,775,000
5. YES MAN WARNER BROS. 3,434 5,975,000 1,740 n/a 39,206,186
6. SEVEN POUNDS SONY 2,758 4,810,000 1,744 n/a 30,441,147
7. TALE OF DESPEREAUX, THE UNIVERSAL 3,104 3,215,000 1,036 n/a 21,827,000
8. DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, THE FOX 2,402 2,785,000 1,159 n/a 58,620,169
9. SPIRIT, THE LIONSGATE 2,509 2,670,000 1,064 n/a 6,615,000
10. FOUR CHRISTMASES WARNER BROS. 2,510 1,910,000 761 n/a 108,697,497
11. DOUBT MIRAMAX 1,267 1,890,000 1,492 n/a 5,055,000
12. TWILIGHT SUMMIT 1,849 1,625,000 879 n/a 164,246,207
13. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE FOX SEARCHLIGHT 614 1,495,000 2,435 n/a 16,747,886

http://www.showbizdata.com/dailybox.cfm

Huge jump for Twilight. It's up 1.2% from last Friday, despite losing 1142 theaters.

Yeah, I thought it wouldn't make it to $180 million after seeing the theater drop, but it looks like it'll make it anyway.

I'm also greatly impressed by Doubt. It should make over $5 million for the weekend, and with Oscar buzz it should make at least $30 million, maybe $40 million if Streep wins the Oscar.

That is very impressive for Valkyrie; it dropped only 3% compared to Benjamin Button's 14%. Will this bode well for its leg?

Amazing for Valkyrie. It has already outgrossed Lions for Lambs.