1 N MARLEY & ME Fox $36,357,586 - 3,480 - $10,448 $50,738,566 1
2 N BEDTIME STORIES BV $27,450,296 - 3,681 - $7,457 $38,029,113 1
3 N THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON Par. $26,853,816 - 2,988 - $8,987 $38,725,647 1
4 N VALKYRIE UA $21,027,007 - 2,711 - $7,756 $29,520,979 1
5 1 YES MAN WB $16,657,046 -8.8% 3,434 - $4,851 $49,798,560 2
6 2 SEVEN POUNDS Sony $13,203,236 -11.1% 2,758 - $4,787 $38,762,647 2
7 3 THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX Uni. $8,932,625 -11.6% 3,107 +3 $2,875 $27,448,085 2
8 4 THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Fox $7,697,799 -22.2% 2,402 -1,158 $3,205 $63,480,104 3
9 N THE SPIRIT LGF $6,463,278 - 2,509 - $2,576 $10,305,501 1
10 15 DOUBT Mira. $5,339,742 +684.2% 1,267 +1,228 $4,214 $8,484,863 1

11 5 FOUR CHRISTMASES WB (NL) $4,840,221 -37.2% 2,510 -1,005 $1,928 $111,588,896 5
12 6 TWILIGHT Sum. $4,742,432 -8.6% 1,849 -1,142 $2,565 $167,325,198 6
13 8 SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE FoxS $4,301,870 +40.9% 614 +25 $7,006 $19,476,395 7
14 7 BOLT BV $3,377,761 -18.5% 1,923 -1,045 $1,757 $102,423,519 6
15 18 GRAN TORINO WB $2,322,781 +396.1% 84 +65 $27,652 $4,220,824 3
16 11 MILK Focus $1,762,638 +1.9% 311 -45 $5,668 $13,533,585 3
17 10 QUANTUM OF SOLACE Sony $1,400,474 -31.7% 891 -983 $1,572 $164,302,659 7
18 19 FROST/NIXON Uni. $1,355,186 +258.5% 205 +166 $6,611 $3,539,426 4
19 9 AUSTRALIA Fox $1,079,248 -50.4% 711 -1,501 $1,518 $44,283,588 5
20 12 MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA P/DW $923,018 -41.2% 808 -1,199 $1,142 $174,862,381 8

21 29 THE READER Wein. $664,013 +615.6% 116 +108 $5,724 $1,243,690 3
22 24 THE WRESTLER FoxS $387,530 +91.2% 18 +14 $21,529 $907,631 2
N/A N REVOLUTIONARY ROAD ParV $189,911 - 3 - $63,304 $189,911 1
N/A N LAST CHANCE HARVEY Over. $97,260 - 6 - $16,210 $132,934 1
N/A N WALTZ WITH BASHIR SPC $50,021 - 5 - $10,004 $53,913 1

http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/ ... =52&p=.htm

Twilight is by far the most fascinating box office run of the year imo. I was holding back on saying that earlier, as The Dark Knight is arguably more fascinating, but for me, this picture is completely ridiculous!

Twilight had the biggest Friday share of a 3day weekend in history! It dropped 40.8% on its 2nd day. It had a 1.94 Fri/Weekend multiplier. Downright terrible!

It dropped 62.2% on a HOLIDAY weekend, on Thanksgiving weekend. Easily one of the worst drops in history over Thanksgiving.

And then after such a horrendous frontloaded two weeks, it dropped 50.5% on the post Thanksgiving weekend, the second best hold in the top ten, and best hold for non-Christmas films.

Then it dropped 39% in its 4th weekend, remarkably reversing its frontloadedness into solid legs.

Then there was the snowed in weekend where all of the box office suffered, and we had a terrible pre-Christmas weekend. And yet Twilight had the best hold of its run thus far, dropping 34.7%, easily the best hold for a non-expanding film, by nearly 6%. And this was despite losing 18% of its theaters that weekend!

And now there's this weekend. Twilight had the best hold for a non-expanding holdover in the top 15. And it lost 1142 theaters! Its per theater average went up a whopping 47.8%! It lost 38.2% of its theaters this weekend!

And this is just how fascinating its holdover weekends have been. The opening weekend itself was just spectacular considering it was from a lesser known studio, had relatively unknown stars, and it redefined what a female led mega-blockbuster opening is.

Out of the blue, its topped Quantum of Solace, and will top Madagascar, to be the top film from August-pre Christmas. The most fascinating thing about this film is how rapid its turnaround was from being one of the most frontloaded films of all time, to showing the best legs of the season for holdovers.

LOL, you are way too fascinated by Twilight, O.

There is even precedent from this year alone with a female-skewing blockbuster showing horrible frontloading off the bat only to gain legs later in its run (Sex and the City). This is nothing earth-shattering.

Thats really bad for the Spirit. A 1.68x Christmas day to weekend multiplier? Damn

While I'm not obsessed with how TWILIGHT is doing, I'll admit it is pretty interesting and certainly very impressive.

Oh, I don't disagree at all. But the most impressive thing about it will always remain its massive opening. Nothing else regarding its run can really compare.

Well there's precedent for The Dark Knight too though with Shrek 2, which would adjust to $500 m + now. I know I'm probably more interested in its run than most, but even if it isn't precedent setting, its quite fascinating.

I'm not obsessed! As we can see by the post Dark Knight period, there really hasn't been much of a big story other than this up until this Christmas weekend. Madagascar and Casino Royale more or less underperformed, so there really wasn't much that went on at the box office that was noteworthy imo other than this. I probably overexaggerated by saying its more fascinating than The Dark Knight, but its interesting to track regardless.

No "one of" about it - actually it was the single worst TG weekend drop in recorded BO history (500+ theater release). It edged out Mortal Kombat: Annihilation's 11 year record to become the first 60%+ dropper over the frame (MK2 just barely avoided it).

Tom Cruise can still pack them in.

I wouldn't call a $21m weekend "packing them in".

Jennifer Aniston defeats Smith, Cruise, Carrey, Pitt, and Sandler. Amazing. Well, I guess the puppy and Wilson get some credit. And GQ.

shut yo face! u know shit about box office, robot!

My thoughts about the weekend:



Marley & Me's opening is simply staggering. I mean, really, we should have seen it coming. We should have seen it coming that many films would break out this weekend because each December we've got at least two really big hits and since this December has been rather lackluster so far, it was 'bound to happen. However, I think that four of the new releases breaking out big time also hurt all of them at the same time as they kinda cannibalized at other a bit too. That applies especially to Bedtime Stories and Marley & Me that were vying for the same target audiences mostly. I think both would have opened to even more had they been released on their own.

Anyway, fact is that Marley & Me absolutely crushed the previous Christmas Day opening record held by Ali for seven years and grossed a handy $50.7 million within just four days on release. It goes on to show that dog movies are usually pretty easy sells if marketed right and given the right release date (just think of Beverly Hills Chihuahua which almost made it to $100 million). Obviously being based on a very ood and beloved bestseller helped too. Thinking of it, Marley & Me (having read the book myself) is simply a perfect holidays release with appeal to the whole family. Despite mixed reviews, WoM seems to be great (you can't do much wrong if you just stay faithful to that book) and during January there's almost no competition for family audiences whatsoever with the exception of the seemingly dumped Inkheart and Hotel for Dogs which will do mediocre business at most. Thus I expect Marley & Me to maintain solid legs throughout Januiary and February delivering something of a Night at the Museum-like run only with slightly worse legs due to the bestseller probably causing some frontloading. At the end of its run, I think it will just miss the yearly Top 5 (WALL-E will remain in its spot), but still gross a very hefty $205-220 million.


Bedtime Stories clearly suffered from Marley & Me taking its spotlight. However, it still delivered a respectable opening and will give Sandler his 10th $100 million-grosser and might even become his biggest film to date. If I compare it to Cheaper by the Dozen and Peter Pan from back in 2003, it should end up with $125-140 million. HOWEVER, I think the situation is different here. While Marley & Me took away some of its audiences in the opening weekend, it should rebound at least somewhat later. The situation that I imagine is that Bedtime Stories is just the 2nd-choice film for many families and since there are barely any family-oriented films in January, Bedtime Stories' legs should kick in later in the run. I definitely expect it to become Sandler's biggest film at least since 2005's The Longest Yard, but there's a shot it will actually pass Big Daddy and become Sandler's biggest film. Right now, however, I peg its total gross at $148-160 million.

I think another interesting thing to be noted here is that Adam Shankman is really quite a reliable director when it comes to producing solid hits. Just take a look at his filmography: posting.php?mode=reply&f=12&t=47536 Even his lowest-grossing film, A Walk to Remember, still did decent numbers. Bedtime Stories will become his fourth $100+ million grosser and the most remarkable thing about it is that none of these four films were even sequels. He'll definitely be getting more and more big projects in the future.


Even with all the big success that Marley & Me got, I think the real box-office story of the weekend is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. For a 3-hour long, relatively "weird"-looking movies, playing in less than 3,000 theatres to get almost $39 million over the first four days it's damn impressive! Obviously, it is a little bit frontloaded as seen by its Friday decline, but the huge Oscar buzz it'll be getting soon as well as pretty terrific WoM will be able to overcome that. I think we've got a mini-Forrest Gump on our hands here. How far it willgo at the box-office will mostly depend on the Oscar nominations it will get (Best Picture seems pretty likely) and the eventual wins. Right now, I don't predict it to win Best Picture, so my gross projection won't include that. However, even without the win, buzz will be strong and WoM will carry it all the way to the ceremony in February. There's even a chance that it'll stay in the Top 10 until then. I think Benjamin Button will wind up with $185-195 million in the bank (somewhat following Cold Mountain's run only with better WoM and more Oscar buzz, but with more frontloading too) which is more than terrific for this kind of a movie, but IF it wins Best Picture, then I see $220+ million.


Valkyrie actually surprised a lot this weekend too. The surprises by Marley & Me and Benjamin Button overshadowed its success, but considering this has been delayed multiple times and overall for over half a year now and that it came out against pretty strong competition $29.5 million over four days looks like a pretty good start. I think the marketing campaign was pretty effective and the fact that the trailers for it have been playing for over a year now surely helped too. There was just a demand for a solid thriller among all the Oscar and family fare. It also showed us that Tom Cruise is still somewhat of a draw (I definitely believe that his presence helped the success a lot). If Valkyrie follows Paycheck's run from 2003 (it opened on the same weekend), it'll end up with $85 million. However, I think Paycheck had worse WoM and targeted younger audiences. Valkyrie's WoM is not great, but it is not terrible either and so far it has shown no signs of frontloading. Its audiences are probably skewing a bit older too, so I expect it to finish with $95-100 million with a slight chance at crossing $100 million, but only if it stays in theatres long enough to do so. If it manages that, it'll become the 15th movie for Cruise to do so. If it gets close enough, the studio will just push it beyond.


Yes Man might have dropped from #1 to #5 this weekend, but despite tremendous competition it dropped just a miniscule 8.8% this weekend and that despite major competition. With the movie being your usualy fun flick and enjoying solid WoM, I expect it to have solid legs from now on. Except for Bride Wars, January doesn't have many big comedies and Yes Man might benefit from that. Still, it looks like Yes Man will have problems passing Fun with Dick and Jane's total gross afterall which surprises me considering Yes Man looks to have better WoM and had better marketing and concept. I think right now it's looking at $100-105 million and while Dick and Jane's $100 million are not toally out of reach yet, it'll need some really good holds during the next two weks to manage that.


After a disappointing opening weekend, at least Seven Pounds managed a decent hold in its sophomore frame. Some might see this movie's run as a disappointment for Will Smith, but considering the film's marketing (telling nothing about the plot) and the pretty bad reviews, I think it actually shows off his drawing power. Right now, Seven Pounds is on its way to a total of $75-80 million which, all things considered, is a pretty respectable total for the drama. Keep in mind that it has lots of competition from better-reviewed Oscar fare right now, so this cume is actually really good.


The Tale of Despereaux declined 11.6% this weekend, more than the other two 2nd-week holdovers. That can be directly attributed to the huge break-out's of Marley & Me and Bedtime Stories which made almost $64 million together this weekend, leaving almost no room for other family-oriented fare. Nevertheless, I expect it to do pretty well over the upcoming seven days and stand at nearly $45 million by the end of the next weekend. It wil drop pretty quickly after that, leaving Bedtime Stories and Marley & Me as the main faimly movies in the marketplace, but I expect it to gross $58 million in total before disappearing which is alright for a movie of this rather small caliber.


The holiday legs are really the saving grace of The Day the Earth Stood Still. The next few days will be its last chance at getting some more bucks as I expect it to pretty much vanish from theatres afterwards. It'll end up with $80 million in the bank domestically (giving its a paltry 2.6 multiplier) and well over $200 mllion worldwide.


The Spirit did just as expected. The first day gross was not great, but alright. It absolutely crumbled afterwards. I expect it to have another rather decent weekend before disappearing completely. It will leave the theatres with about $25 million in its pockets. A pretty bad, yet very expected performance.


Doubt did surprisingly well in its big expansion! Considering it is a movie about religion and pedophilia and we've got the Christmas time right now, I'm surprised it did as well as it did. I imagine it is getting a lot of Oscar buzz among regular moviegoers. The star-studded cast probably helped too. Now its further run will depend on how the Oscars turn out, but I think we can expect at least four nominations (Screenplay and three acting noms) with five being more likely. It might also win the Best Actress award, giving it an even bigger push. In any case I think we're looking at $40-50 million, depending on how the awards will actually turn out.


With Christmas over now and after losing over 1,000 theatres, it was obvious that Four Christmases would suffer a comparatively large drop. Still, grossing almost $5 million in its fifth weekend is pretty good for it and it is bigger than the Chrismas-themed flicks released in recent years (Fred Claus, Christmas with the Kranks, Deck the Halls). In fact, it is the highest-grossing live action Christmas movie since Elf. It will also pass Walk the Line as Reese Witherspoon's 2nd-biggest film and The Break-Up as Vaughn's 2nd-biggest (with him in the lead) ending up with pretty amazing $121 million.


Twilight's drop this weekend is simply incredible considering it had the second-biggest theatre loss in the Top 18 (down 1,142 theatres), but delivered the BEST hold among the non-expanders. This turnaround in legs is really amazing. Yes, Sex and the City kind of set the precedent, but this is different. Sex and the City's target audiences are older women, making its legs more easily explainable, whereas Twilight obviously skews pretty young which should have made it additionally frontloaded. But apparently it didn't. Okay, its legs won't win any prizes, but considering what we have seen at first it's just unbelievable that it will end up with $184 million now, a higher gross than Quantum of Solace, Madagascar 2 and even Bedtime Stories as it seems.


Slumdog Millionaire performed amazingly too this weekend. Despite its theatre count increasing slightly, its PTA jumped by over 35% this weekend! With a major expansion still to come, it looks to return back to the Top 10 pretty soon. Hell, it is at almost $20 million now and it hasn't even played at over 614 theatres yet. Considering it still has most of its huge Oscar buzz ahead (including some Golden Globes wins). The total gross will heavily depend on whether or not it wins Best Picture. I don't think it will, but it should still end up with $75+ million. If it does win BP, then I think it'll make it to $110+ million. In any case, it's locked to become Fox Seachlight's 2nd-biggest film, passing Sideways, but I really don't think it will pass Juno.


Bolt suffered not only under heavy direct competition, but also from the fact that it lost over 1,000 theatres. On the bright side: it has finally passed $100 million. It should be on its way to a $113 million total now.


Gran Torino is another one of the weekend's huge surprises. Eastwood's Changeling already did somewhat better than expected and now Gran Torino looks to follow suit. A $27,000+ PTA in 84 theatres is pretty damn great and things are looking good for its expansion to 2,300 theatres in two weeks. The movie looks like the perfect farewell role for Eastwood and with him getting Oscar buzz, I could see this having good legs too. It's a bit early to tell, but I'd say it's going to end up with $45-60 million.


Despite (stupidly) losing some theatres this weekend, Milk actually managed to increase showing that it still has potential. The movie will also recive several major Oscar noms in January and will probably be expanded to 1,000+ theatres. I think its chances at winning BP are pretty slim now, so it'll have to settle for the buzz from the nom. Still, I feel that $35-45 million is in for it, maybe more if Penn wins.


Quantum of Solace really is vanishing quickyl. It'll be lucky to pass Casino Royale at this point (despite still tracking almost $11 million ahead of it). It will finish with $168 million, within less than $1 million from CR's total gross.


Frost/Nixon's PTA bareöy went down this weekend, despite the theatre count increasing by A LOT. That bodes well fr further expansions, but in the case of this film, its box-office chances utterly and completely depend on whether or not it will get a Best Picture nomination.


It seems like Australia won't pass $50 million afterall now and will have to settle for $47-48 million. The overseas run is pretty good, though.


Surprisingly enough Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa won't pass $180 million. I see it leaving the theatres with $178 million in the bag which is almost 10% lower than the first film's total. Its international performance more than makes up for it, though.


An amazing limited start for Revolutionary Road, but then again, I expected no less with its stars and its overall pedigree. I hope they expand it fast because it will become clear pretty soon that this won't be a big Oscar player.


Rachel Getting Married finally passed $10 million! Still, the studio somewhat bothced the film's chances.

The puppy, yes.

Wilson, I doubt. Jen was front and center of Marley & Me's promotional blitz. I must have seen her on five or six different talk shows promoting it.

Basically. She did all the promo basically and Owen stayed low key, for the obviously reasons. Her team really put her to work and all the lovely GQ covers payed off.

Disappointing for the holdovers especially because of last weekend's fiasco.
There is no spin on it, its a holiday weekend they should have gone up.
2008s dismal finish is quite worrying for 2009. The economy is definitely playing a bigger role now.

Look back at the same weekend back in 2003. Only two films went up slughtly (among holdovers).

Granted the economy is playing a role in the box office. I don't think that is the reason why for the first three weekends of December were mediocre. The releases just weren't that good. People weren't interested and didn't go see those movies.

Lector, Elf was a year after The Santa Clause 2

Hmm, that's right, I forgot.

Pointing out the mistakes is good, it actually means people read it, heh.