Weekend Box Office: 2012 routs the box office; Precious sparkles in limited release!

Los Angeles gets destroyed in Roland Emmerich's latest braindead entertainer 2012 - This weekend's #1 movie. Photo: Sony Pictures

Americans and moviegoers worldwide displayed their loyalty to brainless entertainment by shelling out their money for Roland Emmerich’s disaster flick 2012, which easily conquered the box office. Also making news on the charts this weekend was independent Oscar-hopeful Precious which raked in another impressive haul, setting the stage for an amazing nationwide expansion next week.

Audiences nationwide were craving a big-budget, brain-dead spectacle and 2012 delivered. The doomsday thriller, trashed by critics, had no problem topping the box office this weekend, grossing a gargantuan $65.2 million in receipts, according to weekend estimates released by the studio. Utilizing an epic marketing campaign that included road block advertising across 200 channels and a simultaneous worldwide release date, 2012 pulled in more than $160 million from worldwide locations.

Smashing most weekend predications, the high opening ranks in as the seventh largest for a film debuting in the month of November. With the lucrative Thanksgiving weekend on its way, 2012 should have a healthy stay at the box office before crumbling in the month of December. Regardless of the future prospects, Sony Pictures will be more than happy with this result (it’s their highest opening picture of 2009) and are probably already in talks with Emmerich to come up with new ways to destroy the world.

Losing only 26% of its audience from last weekend, Disney’s A Christmas Carol displayed very strong legs for a weekend sum of $22.3 million. After last weekend’s modest opening, Disney was hoping for a strong holdover, so this number should be very good news for the studio. With Thanksgiving approaching and the holiday season on its heels, A Christmas Carol should play well all the way through December as most similar holiday pictures do. A Christmas Carol is one of my 20 Must-See movies of Fall 2009.

Skyrocketing up the charts was Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals sensation Precious, which expanding to 174 locations this weekend to bring in an estimated $5.8 million in weekend receipts. Scoring a ridiculously high $35,000 average per theater, the critically acclaimed film about a pregnant and abused teenager from Harlem is causing a storm at the box office – which is only excellent news for its Oscar prospects. Precious opens nationwide next weekend (including South Florida), in what will surely be another sizzling weekend for the current Oscar frontrunner. With awards season starting in December, Precious is bound to play well until the Oscars in March so a final tally in the $100 million range isn’t out of the question. Precious is one of my 20 Must-See movies of Fall 2009.

George Clooney’s The Men Who Stare at Goats dropped a spot to fourth place by earning another $6.2 million this weekend. Dropping more than 51% from last weekend, the Clooney starrer is not receiving the word-of-mouth it needs to have a long run at the box office. However, as I stated last week, this project was relatively cheap to produce so Clooney and pals will not be worrying too much about the success of this quirky project.

Dropping three places to fifth was Michael Jackson’s This Is It, which grossed an additional $5.1 million to bring its total to $67 million. With only one more weekend left in its domestic run, the impressive concert documentary should top out with around $75 million domestically – which should only count for around 30% of its overall grosses as international demand and earnings are significantly higher.

Dropping to sixth place, Universal Pictures’ The Fourth Kind lost more than 60% of its audience this weekend for an estimated $4.7 million gross. With only $20 million in the bank, do not expect this film to become a highlight for the studio.

Couples Retreat is slowly inching its way off the chart. After six weekends on the chart, it is by far the longest reigning film in the top ten, picking up an estimated $4.25 million this weekend. Final tally stands at $102 million.

Paranormal Activity is finally fading away, losing half its viewers from the previous weekend for an estimated $4 million in ticket sales.

Not making much noise and rounding out the charts were thrillers Law-Abiding Citizen and The Box – a box office bomb - which closed their weekend ledgers with $3.7 million and $3.1 million respectively.

Failing to make a dent at the box office was British comedy Pirate Radio which opened in eleventh place with $2.9 million.

The Wes Anderson-directed animated comedy Fantastic Mr. Fox opened on four screens in New York and Los Angeles for a sparkling $260,000 gross – an impressive $65,000 average. It will expand to South Florida during Thanksgiving weekend to capitalize on the glowing buzz and reviews. Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of my 20 Must-See movies of Fall 2009.

Next weekend sees the highly anticipated debut on The Twilight Saga: New Moon which will easily dominate the box office and have one of the largest movie openings of all time, considering the media hype surrounding the film and its loyal and ever-expanding female fanbase. Also opening are the animated comedy Planet 51 and Sandra Bullock’s inspirational sports drama The Blind Side.

Click here for last weekend’s Top Ten

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (NOVEMBER 13-15, 2009)