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Weekend Box Office: Disney's A Christmas Carol tops the box office
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A Christmas Carol
The Holiday season got a head start this weekend with the help of Disney and director Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, which easily secured the number one position at the box office. The weekend’s other three new wide releases, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Fourth Kind and The Box, opened to varying degrees of success while Oscar contender Precious, opened to stunning revenues in limited release.
The combination of a classic story, spectacular visuals and Disney Digital 3-D was an irresistible combination for audiences nationwide who flocked to Disney’s A Christmas Carol , making it the number one movie in the nation. The animated film, starring the voice talents of Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman and Colin Firth pulled in a commanding $30 million in revenue in its first three days of release. While reviews were mixed, general audience reaction to the film was strong – the film earned an encouraging B+ grade from Yahoo Movies Users. Despite topping the box office, the opening wasn’t as strong compared to previous animated films opening this weekend. Additionaly, the film was greatly helped by the high IMAX ticket prices, so in hindsight, the film was a minor dissapointment. However, outlook for A Christmas Carol is very good as Christmas-themed films tend to play well throughout the holiday season. Director Robert Zemeckis' previous holiday-themed animated film The Polar Express also opened to similar numbers in 2004 but played successfully throughout the holiday season, ending up earning $187 million.
Last week’s box office champ, the Michael Jackson concert documentary This Is It, dropped one spot to second place, earning $13.1 million. While it lost 40% of its viewers from last week, that number signified that word-of-mouth is strong. Having earned a very respectable $57 million so far, the documentary should end its run as a very profitable picture.
George Clooney’s Iraq satire The Men Who Stare at Goats debuted in third place to better-than-expected numbers, grossing an estimated $12.7 million this weekend. Reviews for the comedy were mixed and audience reception has been poor – the film earned a weak C grade from Yahoo Movie users. A strong shelf-life isn’t expected. However, having cost only $25 million to produce, The Men Who Stare at Goats should find itself a profitable entity for Overture pictures.
Alien abduction horror thriller The Fourth Kind appropriately opened in fourth place, bringing in $12.2 million in box office receipts. The Universal release played its cards right by taking advantage of the hand-held realism horror fade that has been gripping the nation lately, thanks to the success of Paranormal Activity.
Speaking of Paranormal Activity – that film dropped to fifth place and jotted down another $8.2 million this weekend to bring its overall tally to an amazing $97.1 million. With the dust finally settling on the phenomenon, Paranormal Activity will close out its theatrical gross in the $120 million range before catching fire again on DVD in early 2010.
The Cameron Diaz-fronted sci-fi thriller The Box was largely ignored by audiences and debuted in sixth place to a poor $7.5 tally. The dismal returns will mean that this film becomes the third flop in a row for director Richard Kelly who will now have to seriously consider his career path now - if he still has one.
Couples Retreat hung on remarkably well in seventh place - losing a miniscule 5.1% of its audience - an almost unheard of number, adding $6.1 million to bring its total earnings to $95.6 million. The jaw-dropping hold is most likely due to Halloween's negative impact on the box office last weekend. With more audiences free to see the movie this weekend than last, the numbers picked up to hold well.
Also playing well in eight position and its fifth week was Law-Abiding Citizen, which pulled in $6 million. Final tally stands at $60.7 million.
Two family films rounded out the top ten – Where the Wild Things Are and Astro Boy, which grossed $4.1 million and $2.6 million respectively.
The big box office news of the weekend belonged to Precious, the critically acclaimed drama about an inner city pregnant teenager, which earned $1.8 million from only 18 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta for an average of $100,000 per theater. The heavily favored Oscar contender, produced by media moguls Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, will open in South Florida on November 20th. Look for my review and more press for the film in the upcoming weeks.
Click here for last weekend’s Top Ten
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (NOVEMBER 6-8, 2009)
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SOURCE: BoxOfficeMojo.com
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