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What does a not so good opening for The Golden Compass mean for Enchanted? Mostly good news. In its third weekend, Enchanted earned $10.7 million for Disney, dropping 35% compared to last weekend. Enchanted continues its assault on $100 million as its total now sits at $83.9 million. The Disney princess movie should see at least $120 million by the start of 2008, which could be more than The Golden Compass ever sees.

In third place is This Christmas, which earned $5 million. The urban holiday flick was off an okay 37% from last weekend, and has been a huge hit for Screen Gems and Sony. This Christmas cost the studio only $13 million to make, and has now earned them $42.8 million, more than three times the production budget.

Fourth spot goes to Fred Claus, the Warner Bros. Christmas release. Fred earned $4.7 million this weekend, and was off an excellent 15%, as the seasonal release lowers the percentage drops. Unfortunately for WB, it's too little too late, as the $100 million production has now earned $65.6 million.

Beowulf falls behind Fred Claus, as the 3-D CGI piece falls further and further away from its monstrous $150 million production cost. Beowulf, no longer the only big effects movie in the top ten, earned an ugly $4.4 million this weekend, falling 46% compared to the previous frame. This performance pretty much ends Beowulf's shot at $100 million, as its total now sits at $76 million.

No Country For Old Men manages to rise from tenth spot last weekend to sixth spot this weekend, as it got past The Mist, Bee Movie and August Rush to finish further up the chart. No Country earned $4.2 million in its third weekend of wide release, and was off a tiny 3% compared to last weekend. No Country has now earned $28.9 million, and continues to be the front runner of this year's Oscar race.

The rest of the top ten is a mish-mash of bad ideas and aging holdovers. Seventh goes to August Rush, the sentimental Warner Bros. fantasy. August Rush earned $3.5 million and was off 30%. So far, this one has earned $25.1 million, and won't see more than $35 million.

Hitman is our number eight film as again, nothing is around to move this out of the top ten. Hitman earned $3.5 million and was off 42%. So far, the movie based on the game has earned $35.8 million.

Ninth goes to Awake, last weekend's sole opener and Hollywood's latest miss. After earning $5.9 million last weekend (all tickets sold were to the Jessica Alba fan club), Awake only managed to earn $3.3 million in its second weekend. That equals a 44% drop, and a gross so far of $10.7 million. Bye bye to rubbish.

Rounding out the top ten is Bee Movie, the Jerry Seinfeld flick that won't go away. Bee Movie earned $2.6 million, dropping 41% compared to its previous frame. Bee Movie has now earned $121 million, which sounds great, but it carries a production budget of $150 million.

Overall, it's sad times at the box office, but that may change next weekend (but that's what I thought last weekend). The top 12 films earned a woeful $73.2 million this weekend, which is close to what The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe opened to two years ago. Last year, the top 12 were led by low Apocalypto ($15 million opening), but still managed to earn an overall score of $87.1 million. Next weekend brings I Am Legend, so maybe that one will blow the stink off the current box office.

Top Weekend Box Office for 12/7/07-12/9/07 (Actuals)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Actual Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass	New Line Cinema	N/A	$25,783,232	New	$25,783,232
2	Enchanted	Walt Disney Pictures	$10,706,000	$10,709,515	- 34.7%	$83,868,421
3	This Christmas	Sony/Columbia	$5,000,000	$4,961,083	- 37.5%	$42,721,264
4	Fred Claus	Warner Bros.	$4,660,000	$4,608,314	- 16.2%	$65,536,922
5	Beowulf	Paramount	$4,400,000	$4,536,667	- 44.7%	$76,119,822
6	No Country for Old Men	Paramount	$4,233,000	$4,116,888	- 6.1%	$28,744,592
7	August Rush	Warner Bros.	$3,525,000	$3,510,446	- 30.1%	$25,133,572
8	Hitman	Twentieth Century Fox	$3,475,000	$3,488,135	- 42.1%	$35,822,781
9	Awake	MGM, The Weinstein Company	$3,301,000	$3,327,369	- 43.2%	$10,743,207
10	The Mist	Dimension Films	$2,560,000	$2,629,260	- 42.3%	$23,477,175
11	Bee Movie	DreamWorks	$2,612,000	$2,606,153	- 41.4%	$121,021,546
12	American Gangster	Universal	$2,558,400	$2,538,485	- 40.5%	$125,553,670
	Also Opening/Notables
	Atonement	Focus Features	$816,883	$796,836	New	$796,836
	Juno	Fox Searchlight	$420,113	$525,155	New	$525,155
	Noelle	Gener8xion Entertainment	$162,800	$165,445	New	$162,800
	Revolver		$41,670	$41,820	New	$41,820
	The Walker	THINKFilm	$16,577	$16,577	New	$16,577
	Dirty Laundry	Codeblack	$15,390	$15,390	New	$15,390
	Grace Is Gone	The Weinstein Company	$14,000	$13,880	New	$13,880
	The Amateurs	Bauer Martinez Distribution	$12,008	$10,149	New	$10,149
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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