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The Descendants is seventh this weekend, and is a classic example of how to roll out a dramatic film for adults. After opening at 29 venues to over a $1 million, Fox Searchlight expanded to 390 venues over Thanksgiving, and the George Clooney film earned $7.4 million. The following weekend, The Descendants expanded again, to 574 venues, and earned $4.8 million. That brings us to this weekend, where it expanded again to 840 venues, earning $4.4 million and dropping only 8%. With Golden Globe nominations on the horizon and room for further expansion over the Christmas movie lottery period, this one is going to do very well. The Descendants cost Searchlight only $8 million to make, and has earned almost three times that so far, as the domestic total sits at $23.6 million. Where it will finish, no one knows.

Eighth goes to Happy Feet Two, another family film that has struggled. The expensive George Miller film earned $3.8 million, dropping 37% from its $5.9 million performance last weekend. Remember that this one cost Warner Bros. $135 million to make, and so far has a domestic total of only $56.9 million. It has earned an additional $35 million overseas, but it's not going to be enough to turn a profit on this one.

Ninth is Jack and Jill, as the Adam Sandler comedy won't do what it should – die. In its fifth weekend, Jack and Jill earned another $3.2 million, and dropped 40%. The $80 million comedy has earned $68.6 million stateside, and is just getting stated overseas.

Finally in tenth is Immortals, Relativity Media's gamble on Clash of the Titans leftovers. Immortals earned $2.4 million in its fifth weekend, and dropped 45% compared to last weekend. This one cost Relativity $75 million to make, a figure that it has at least earned domestically, as that total sits at $79.8 million. It's also doing quite well overseas, where it has brought in over $100 million, so it appears to be a good gamble for the upstart studio.

Overall at the box office, things are very, very bad. This weekend's top 12 failed to outgross last weekend's top 12, with last weekend being the dreaded weekend after Thanksgiving frame. Two openers combining for $25 million is simply not good enough. Last year, the abandoned Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Johnny Depp's awful The Tourist opened together and combined for $40 million. This year, the top 12 films at the box office amassed only $69.2 million, where last year brought in $84.3 million. For a December top 12 this low, one has to look back to the post-Thankgiving weekend in 2002, when Analyze That flopped badly, and for a weekend this bad that didn't come directly after Thanksgiving, we have to go back to 1998. Next weekend should change things up, though, as Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opens, along with another Alvin and the Chipmunks movie.

Top Weekend Box Office for 12/9/11-12/11/11 (Estimates)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	New Year's Eve	New Line Cinema	$13,705,000	New	$13,705,000
2	The Sitter	Twentieth Century Fox	$10,000,000	New	$10,000,000
3	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1	SUMMIT	$7,900,000	- 52%	$259,483,267
4	The Muppets	Walt Disney Pictures	$7,100,000	- 36%	$65,800,000
5	Arthur Christmas	Sony/Columbia	$6,600,000	- 11%	$33,490,000
6	Hugo	Paramount	$6,125,000	- 19%	$33,489,000
7	The Descendants	Fox Searchlight	$4,385,000	- 8%	$23,635,423
8	Happy Feet Two	WARNER BROS.	$3,750,000	- 37%	$56,850,000
9	Jack and Jill	Sony/Columbia	$3,200,000	- 40%	$68,647,000
10	Immortals	Relativity Media	$2,442,000	- 45%	$79,849,505
11	Tower Heist	Universal	$2,379,350	- 40%	$74,142,880
12	Puss in Boots	DreamWorks	$1,655,000	- 46%	$141,900,000
	Also Opening/Notables
	Young Adult	Paramount	$320,000	New	$320,000
	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	Fox Searchlight	$300,737	New	$300,737
	We Need to Talk About Kevin	Oscilloscope	$24,000	New	$24,000
	Shame	Fox Searchlight	$276,068	- 21%	$774,154
	My Week With Marilyn	The Weinstein Company	$784,000	- 34%	$5,121,839
	The Artist	The Weinstein Company	$292,130	+ 38%	$885,510
	A Dangerous Method	Sony Classics	$80,125	- 33%	$539,174
	J. Edgar	Warner Bros.	$1,200,000	- 48%	$34,773,000
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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