Weekend Wrap-Up
Holdovers Blind Side Openers at Thanksgiving Box Office
By John Hamann
November 29, 2009
Surprisingly, Lionsgate's Precious gets the squeeze, as despite the long weekend, it sees the first drop of its run. After grossing $10.9 million last weekend, Precious dropped 34% to $7.2 million this weekend. Lionsgate chose to expand the feature by only 34 screens this weekend, and may have cost the early Oscar fave some momentum. Financially, this one is secure, as the production cost was only $10 million and it has a gross so far of $32.5 million. Next weekend could be interesting for Precious.
Unfortunately, The Fantastic Mr. Fox finishes in ninth this weekend, as sadly the best features aren't seen by the most people. Since expanding on Wednesday, Fox earned $10 million, and over the Friday-to-Sunday portion of the weekend, the Wes Anderson feature earned $6.9 million. This is a movie we should all be seeing – a solid film with something for the whole family, and a movie that is actually good, not useless drivel. The Fantastic Mr. Fox is 92% fresh at RottenTomatoes, and has a crack at winning the Best Animated Oscar this year. Go see it!
Finishing tenth is The Men Who Stare at Goats, as George Clooney makes room for The Fantastic Mr. Fox and the soon to be released Up in the Air. Goats earned $1.5 million in its fourth weekend, and drops 45% compared to last weekend. Goats now has a total of $30.6 million.
The Road finishes outside of the top ten this weekend, but was only out to 111 venues. From that limited venue count, the Viggo Mortensen flick earned $1.5 million, and garnered a venue average of $13,495. Look for this one to be a player in the weekends to come.
Overall, the box office was quite strong this weekend compared to other years. At Thanksgiving, the trend is for the top 12 films to earn about $150 million, with last year being the Thanksgiving high point at $154 million. This year, the box office was much stronger, with the top 12 films taking in an estimated $179.3 million. Next weekend openers include Brothers, with Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhal and Tobey Maguire, Armored, with Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne, and Everybody's Fine with Robert DeNiro.
1 |
The Twilight Saga: New Moon |
Summit Entertainment |
$42,500,000 |
$42,870,031 |
- 70.0% |
$230,947,696 |
2 |
The Blind Side |
Twentieth Century Fox |
$40,125,000 |
$40,111,364 |
+ 17.6% |
$100,238,841 |
3 |
2012 |
Paramount |
$18,000,000 |
$17,651,729 |
- 33.2% |
$138,451,427 |
4 |
Old Dogs |
Walt Disney Pictures |
$16,846,000 |
$16,894,511 |
New |
$24,228,546 |
5 |
Disney's A Christmas Carol |
Walt Disney Pictures |
$16,003,000 |
$15,758,273 |
+ 28.4% |
$104,927,816 |
6 |
Ninja Assassin |
Warner Bros. Pictures |
$13,135,000 |
$13,316,158 |
New |
$21,193,565 |
7 |
Planet 51 |
Sony/Columbia |
$10,200,000 |
$10,218,641 |
- 16.8% |
$28,487,409 |
8 |
Precious |
Lionsgate |
$7,090,000 |
$7,081,032 |
- 34.9% |
$32,433,482 |
9 |
Fantastic Mr. Fox |
20th Century Fox |
$7,020,000 |
$6,965,267 |
+3322.5% |
$10,024,072 |
10 |
The Road |
The Weinstein Company |
$1,522,870 |
$1,502,231 |
New |
$1,977,453 |
11 |
The Men Who Stare at Goats |
Overture Films |
$1,525,000 |
$1,501,837 |
- 46.9% |
$30,521,930 |
12 |
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day |
Apparation |
$1,250,167 |
$1,301,197 |
New |
$5,728,399 |
|
Also Opening/Notables |
|
The Princess and the Frog |
Walt Disney Pictures |
$712,000 |
$786,190 |
New |
$1,216,860 |
|
De Dana Dan |
Eros |
N/A |
$577,381 |
New |
$742,377 |
|
Me and Orson Welles |
|
$64,780 |
$63,638 |
New |
$85,422 |
|
Small Change |
Film Desk |
N/A |
$4,624 |
New |
$7,487 |
|
Broken Embraces |
Sony Pictures Classics |
$117,005 |
$117,986 |
+ 10.2% |
$312,966 |
|
The Fourth Kind |
Universal Pictures |
$626,520 |
$618,265 |
- 64.6% |
$24,605,935 |
|
Couples Retreat |
Universal |
$974,276 |
$960,995 |
- 50.5% |
$106,700,205 |
Click here for all weekend data
|
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
|
Top 12 for Weekend of November 27-29, 2009
|
Rank |
Film |
Number of Sites |
Percent Change |
Estimated Gross ($) |
Cumulative Gross ($) |
1
|
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
|
4,042
|
-70%
|
42,664,000
|
231,188,000
|
2
|
The Blind Side
|
3,140
|
+18%
|
40,597,000
|
100,916,000
|
3
|
2012
|
3,444
|
-32%
|
17,765,000
|
138,691,000
|
4
|
Old Dogs
|
3,425
|
New
|
17,077,000
|
24,377,000
|
5
|
Disney's A Christmas Carol
|
3,013
|
+33%
|
16,259,000
|
105,674,000
|
6
|
Ninja Assassin
|
2,503
|
New
|
13,293,000
|
21,168,000
|
7
|
Planet 51
|
3,035
|
-17%
|
10,191,000
|
28,503,000
|
8
|
Precious
|
663
|
-34%
|
7,193,000
|
32,549,000
|
9
|
Fantastic Mr. Fox
|
2,033
|
+3,244%
|
6,917,000
|
10,005,000
|
10
|
The Men Who Stare At Goats
|
1,119
|
-45%
|
1,547,000
|
30,561,000
|
11
|
The Road
|
111
|
New
|
1,498,000
|
1,976,000
|
12
|
The Boondock Saints II: All Saint's Day
|
373
|
+114%
|
1,287,000
|
5,702,000
|
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
|
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