The Twilight Saga: New Moon shattered box-office records, flopped with critics and polarized audiences on its opening weekend—ultimately failing to crack the AME top 10 chart**. Its $72.7 million opening day edged The Dark Knight’s $67 million to break the record for highest single-day gross. And assuming its $140.7 million weekend estimate holds up when final figures are released on Monday, New Moon’s weekend tally will rank No. 3 all time, trailing only The Dark Knight ($158.4 million) and Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million).
Whether New Moon will have legs at the box office is anyone’s guess. Its total score among IMDB users is a dismal 4.5 to date, ranking dead last among the weekend’s box-office top 20. But the film’s split along gender lines has been enormous, with the pic scoring a 7.2 among female audiences and a 3.5 among men. That 3.7 male/female differential is more than 50 percent greater than any of the 40-plus films surveyed in this article on Twilight’s gender gap. Meanwhile, critics took a bite out of New Moon, chewing it up and spitting it out for a bloody-bad 29 tomatometer score—considerably lower than Twilight’s 49 tally.
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With New Moon failing to crack the AME chart on account of its lackluster reviews and overall weak IMDB score, Precious was able to repeat as the AME weekend champ. Oscar buzz around the pic continues to build, both for stars Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique and the film itself, which easily posted the highest per-screen gross of any movie in the top 20 to go along with its glowing reviews and solid word of mouth.
The Blind Side was the highest debuting film on this weekend’s chart (No. 5), grossing $34.5 million to place No. 2 at the box office. Reviews of the feel-good sports film starring Sandra Bullock were good overall (70 tomatometer, No. 7 among the B.O. top 20), but less impressive among top critics (52 Metacritic, No. 12). IMDB users scored it a decent 7.0, good for No. 12 for the weekend.
Legendary director Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans posted an impressive debut despite opening on just 27 screens. Word of mouth was stellar (7.8 IMBD, tied for No. 3) and reviews were also excellent, with the Nicolas Cage pic notching an 84 tomatometer score (No. 4). And its $9,519 per-theater gross trailed only Precious for the weekend.
Off the AME chart, the animated movie Planet 51—featuring the voices of Dwayne Johnson and Jessica Biel--also debuted, tallying $12.6 mil to rank No. 4 at the box office. Alas, its standing with both critics and audiences was hardly out of this world, with the flick notching a dismal 19 tomatometer score and 6.0 IMDB rating--both No. 18. (For red carpet pics from premieres of all this week's new films, check out this slideshow.)
An Education was again the weekend’s most critically acclaimed film among the box-office top 20, while A Serious Man was the highest rated among IMDB users. Both films are considered strong contenders for a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
The AME weekend movie chart for Nov. 20-22, 2009:
1) Precious (1)
2) An Education (5)
3) A Serious Man (6)
4) Where the Wild Things Are (3)
5T) The Blind Side (NR)
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5T) This Is It (2)
7) A Christmas Carol (4)
8) Pirate Radio (8)
9) Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (NR)
10) Paranormal Activity (7)
Related Articles:
1) Twilight, New Moon and the huge gender gap in popularity--how does it compare to other movies?
2) Top 10 Nicolas Cage: The best Nicolas Cage movies
3) Precious expands with huge box-office results; 2012, Pirate Radio debut on weekend movie chart
**Tired of reading about the latest dumb action flick, lame gross-out comedy or played-out torture porn horror pic that took home the box office crown? Wish the media balanced screaming headlines about box office winners with more stories about “the top reviewed films” or the “films audiences loved the most”?
I’m with ya. And that’s why I’ve devised the Atlanta Movies Examiner (AME) weekend movie chart, a new ranking system (see list above) that combines critics’ reviews, audience response and, yes, box office to deliver a comprehensive list of what’s hot in theaters in each weekend. (The previous week’s chart position is listed in parentheses after the film title.)
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