‘Slumdog Millionaire’ rides awards wave to top of chart for Dec. 19-21

December 22, 1:40 AMAtlanta Movies ExaminerRyan McNally

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After tallying two Screen Actors’ Guild nominations (Best Ensemble, Best Supporting Actor) on Thursday, Slumdog Millionaire carried its momentum to the top of our weekend charts (an average of box office, critics' reviews and audience response**) for Dec. 19-21. With the box office top six performing poorly with critics, and few Oscar hopefuls playing wide, it was a wide-open race:

1) Slumdog Millionaire (2). Rode the SAG love to a 45-percent increase at the box office as it expanded to 589 screens.

2) Milk (1). Like Slumdog, it was strong at SAG, pulling in three nominations—Best Ensemble, Best Actor (Sean Penn) and Best Supporting Actor (Josh Brolin). But it couldn’t match Slumdog at the box office, falling 36 percent.

3) Bolt (3). Trailed newcomer and fellow animated film The Tale of Despereaux at the box office, but gave it a thrashing among critics (85 to 52 tomatometer) and audiences (7.7 IMDB vs. 6.1) to reign supreme on our charts.

4) Doubt (10). Powered its way to five SAG nominations (Ensemble, Actor, Actress, two Supporting Actresses), moved up five slots on the B.O. chart to #14, and moseyed up six slots on our rankings despite still only showing on 39 screens.

5) Frost/Nixon (4). Ranked third among the B.O. Top 20 at both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic (scoring 90 and 79, respectively) and picked up two SAG nominations—Best Ensemble and Best Actor (Frank Langella).

6) Gran Torino (6T). Eastwood was shut out at SAG, but those who have seen the movie in its limited release are digging Clint’s return to the screen, giving it an 8.3 score at IMDB so far, trailing only Slumdog and Milk in the B.O. Top 20.

7) Yes Man (NR). Jim Carrey’s new comedy started better at the box office than his last holiday flick, 2005’s Fun with Dick and Jane, but critics just said no, resulting in a paltry 45 metacritic score (17th among the B.O. Top 20).

8) Role Models (5). Coming to the end of an impressive run on our Top 10 list and in the B.O. Top 20 … or as Mr. Rudd would point out loudly and in no uncertain terms, venti—or is it grande?

9) Seven Pounds (NR). The latest Will Smith pic, which opened at #2 at the box office, is faring much better with audiences thus far (7.6 IMDB) than with critics (a lowly 28 tomatometer score).

10) Australia (8). As this year’s Oscar host, will Hugh Jackman should have plenty of material to work with considering the box office failure of his new epic (struggling to reach $45 mil against a $130 million budget).

**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 out 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 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.)