Audiences feasted on leftovers and drove the North American box office to a new record for the busy Thanksgiving holiday frame. Moviegoers were almost evenly split been vampire love and football heroics as The Twilight Saga: New Moon remained at number one while Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side held steady in second place with just $2.4M separating the two. That was a far cry from the $108.7M gap between the pair last weekend when they both opened as Twilight tumbled and Blind Side rose this weekend. The disaster film 2012 placed third as no new release managed to make it into the top three. The Top 20 over Thanksgiving weekend has consistently delivered $150-160M over the last six years but this time it soared to $181M, a new industry high.
Just as with its predecessor one year ago, The Twilight Saga: New Moon suffered a massive sophomore fall dropping 70% to an estimated $42.5M which was still good enough to rule the holiday frame. Summit's teen soap opera averaged $10,515 from 4,042 theaters and boosted its ten-day total to an amazing $230.7M making it the sixth largest blockbuster of 2009. Over the five-day Wednesday-to-Sunday period, New Moon took in $66M.
Last year's Twilight also suffered a steep second weekend decline falling 62% before settling in during the month of December with drops of 51%, 39%, 35%, and 9%. New Moon certainly took advantage of intense upfront demand with its record opening weekend, and will now see if it can still sustain much business with the debut and the holiday frames both over. A domestic tally north of $300M is likely depending on how it fares around Christmastime.
Overseas, the Bella-Edward-Jacob love triangle was still the top draw pulling in an estimated $85.1M from 56 territories. The international cume leaped to $243M pushing the global gross in less than two weeks to a sensational $473.7M. Produced for $50M, the female-skewing pic will easily gross more than $600M worldwide with the highly-anticipated third installment releasing in June.
As the vampire saga tumbled from last weekend's gross, the football hit The Blind Side enjoyed a strong spike in ticket sales rising 18% to an estimated $40.1M over the Friday-to-Sunday period. Still in second place, the Sandra Bullock raked in an amazing $57.5M over five days to propel its cume into nine-digit territory. Warner Bros. has banked an impressive $100.3M in ten days and still has much more ahead of it. The feel-good story plus the football theme made it a popular choice with moviegoers over the holiday session. Bullock has now delivered two $100M hits this year as June's The Proposal, another film with solid legs, took in $164M. This has truly been a comeback year for the Speed star as she's been without a film reaching the century mark since 2000.
Audiences that like to see monuments crumble spent an estimated $18M on the disaster pic 2012 in its third frame dropping a reasonable 32% from last weekend. After 17 days, the Sony title has banked $138.8M domestically ranking number 17 for the year among blockbusters. Overseas, 2012 hauled in another $61.6M raising the international total to a stellar $455.8M and the global tally to a sensational $594.5M. Roland Emmerich's $200M-budgeted destruction flick now ranks fifth for the year worldwide.
John Travolta and Robin Williams joined forces for the Disney comedy Old Dogs and finished in fourth place with a decent but not strong $16.8M over three days. The PG-rated family entry faced stronger-than-expected competition from the star-driven Blind Side which has been playing broadly. Slammed by critics, Dogs averaged $4,919 from 3,425 theaters and made $24.1M over its five-day debut period. The five-day holiday bow was much lower than the $39.7M three-day non-holiday opening of Wild Hogs, Disney's previous Travolta vehicle from director Walt Becker. The studio can at least enjoy the fact that it had the top-grossing new release over the long Thanksgiving frame.
With moviegoers in a holiday mood, Disney's A Christmas Carol rose 30% to an estimated $16M in its fourth weekend to boost its cume to $105.4M. The five-day take was a solid $22.5M.
Opening in sixth place was the ultraviolent actioner Ninja Assassin which bowed to an estimated $13.1M over three days and $21M since its Wednesday debut. The Warner Bros. release averaged $5,248 from 2,503 sites over three days and offered young men some R-rated mayhem to counter the kidpic and female-skewing options out there. Assassin's performance was almost identical to the $13.2M opening and $21.1M five-day of 2007's Hitman, another stylish action pic aimed at guys over the turkey frame.
Sony's animated release Planet 51 dipped 17% to an estimated $10.2M raising the total to only $28.5M. The Lionsgate awards bait Precious declined by 35% to an estimated $7.1M for a $32.4M sum. Five-day grosses were $13.9M and $9.4M, respectively. Fox expanded Fantastic Mr. Fox nationwide after two weeks of platform play and wound up in ninth with an estimated $7M. The PG-rated toon averaged a weak $3,453 and will try to capture more business in the weeks ahead as word-of-mouth spreads for the high-brow family film. Competition for families was intense. Total is $10.1M to date.
Tenth place was too close to call with Overture's The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Weinstein Company's The Road both collecting an estimated $1.5M. Goats fell 46% in its fourth round of wide play and boosted its cume to $30.6M. Road opened in only 111 theaters and averaged a strong $13,721 over three days. Its five-day bow was $2M. Reviews were generally upbeat.
Disney platformed its animated offering The Princess & the Frog in solo houses in New York and Los Angeles with jacked up special event ticket prices leading to an eye-popping average. The G-rated toon grossed an estimated $712,000 from two locations over three days and $1.1M over the long five-day period. That translated to stunning averages of $355,794 and $571,179. The Mouse House takes Princess wide on December 11.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $172.5M over the Friday-to-Sunday span which was up 13% from last year when Four Christmases opened in the top spot with $31.1M; and up 23% from 2007's holiday when Enchanted debuted at number one with $34.4M.
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Matthew P. writes: on Nov 29 2009 05:37 PM New Moon shattering records... it's a rough world out there! Box office numbers always DO surprise me though. :D (Reply to this) |
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The Ensuing Onslaught writes: on Nov 29 2009 05:38 PM Crazy crazy crcazy (Reply to this) |
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tomwaitsjr writes: on Nov 29 2009 06:01 PM The ROAD got clobbered. . . didn't even make that decent of a per screen average. . . (Reply to this) |
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Throw An Onion writes: on Nov 29 2009 06:13 PM The Blind Side was that close to New Moon? Perhaps we aren't all doomed after all. I haven't actually seen the film yet but it got good reviews so its a miracle it actually came close to touching Twilight. Okay maybe not a miracle but I like to see Twilight have a little competition. (Reply to this) |
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Mr. Bo Ziffer writes: on Nov 29 2009 06:51 PM I knew New Moon would get first place again, but it IS refreshing to see The Blind Side following close behind. I'm really not that surprised The Road tanked. I can't think of anyone who would want to see a depressing, post-apocalypse movie during the hap-hap-happiest time of the year . . . nobody except me. (Reply to this) |
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Escapefromalcatraz writes: on Nov 29 2009 07:59 PM Great to see Blind Side RISING in the averages this week. Maybe it's got legs to go through Christmas. I hear it's a winner. Like Mr Bo, my next picture is The Road. (Reply to this) |
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Pleasuretown writes: on Nov 29 2009 08:17 PM Twilight was almost blind sided! Word play. Anyway, it's good to see Sandra Bullock in a good film that's doing well. Also, The Princess and the Frog looks great, i can't wait till it expands. (Reply to this) |
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ledawg1138 writes: on Nov 29 2009 08:23 PM "Old Dogs", ugh. Just...ugh. (Reply to this) |
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ColinTheCimmerian writes: on Nov 29 2009 08:32 PM Wow seeing a rise in a movie's second weekend is pretty darn rare these days. Good for The Blind Side. I have a soft spot for Sandra Bullock so it's nice to see her having a good year. Steep drop for New Moon, steeper than I expected, but it's made enough already that I'm sure all involved parties are satisfied. (Reply to this) |
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JettaJameson writes: on Nov 29 2009 09:31 PM I saw New Moon tonight. Not sure why so many critics panned it. Was it the best movie ever?no. Is it an award show condender? Certainly not. Was it entertaining? Absolutely. Sure, the acting was still a little wooden, but there were some great performances. I had a great time. Oh, also, the CGI on the wolves needs to be WAY improved for the next two installments. I hope Summit puts some real money into it. I think Eclipse will break New Moon's record opening. The books only get more action packed and Eclipse is arguably the strongest book of the saga. The wolves need to look less cartoony to do it justice. Especially since the pack grows close to 20-strong. I'm very much looking forward to The Princess and the Frog. It looks amazing. I hope it takes a huge opening weekend. (Reply to this) |
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Throw An Onion writes: on Nov 29 2009 10:53 PM The Princess and the Frog is something that needs to get here now. Hurry up. I hate waiting for good animation. Its been too long since Mr Fox. I need more animation! (Reply to this) |
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The.Watcher writes: on Nov 29 2009 11:46 PM Oh God, I knew Old Dogs and Wild Hogs have something in common other than their names. Good thing I skipped Old Dawgs, yo=) Anyway, I'm not even commenting on New Moon, cos I think it's embarrassing that I paid a pre-teen wankfest this much attention to begin with. 2012 is holding very well, 500M is def no disaster. Guess Emmerich will find something new to threaten us with... Hey! You know what? Emmerich and Bay should do something Real T Then I will have a perfectly good reason to jump off my building. (Reply to this) |
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blattman writes: on Nov 30 2009 01:29 AM Boondock Saints 2 just opened in Vegas. Only 4 others were in the theater where I saw it, which is a shame. It was a fantastic sequel with all the charm and great writing the first had. (Reply to this) |
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Colyn B. writes: on Nov 30 2009 03:46 AM In reply to this comment (#2566485) Road has not been on any of the theaters with 3 hours of me in Arkansas, it is really not cool because I want to see it. It is definitely a movie that suits my tastes completely. I am glad to see New Moon take the top spot again though. Despite what many people think, and yes some of the acting is ****ty, I really enjoy them haha. (Reply to this) |
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Salmonius writes: on Nov 30 2009 04:39 AM Im still really confused about when the road is being wide released. Said on Wikipedia Nov 25th...but im insanely excited to see it. Im so happy that old dogs didnt break big, maybe that will get John Travolta and Robin Williams to start starring in half decent movies....nah. (Reply to this) |
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Salmonius writes: on Nov 30 2009 04:40 AM In reply to this comment (#2566534) Im still really confused about when the road is being wide released. Said on Wikipedia Nov 25th...but im insanely excited to see it. Im so happy that old dogs didnt break big, maybe that will get John Travolta and Robin Williams to start starring in half decent movies....nah. (Reply to this) |
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frogleg writes: on Nov 30 2009 06:53 AM In reply to this comment (#2566485) Seems to me like $13k per screen is a pretty good average, when compared to anything else in the article, other than Princess. (Reply to this) |
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Freudian Nightmare writes: on Nov 30 2009 07:53 AM In our outrage against New Moon (an outrage well deserved), we're forgetting The Blind Side. Even it can't be half as bad as New Moon, I thought we had surpassed these insporn-movies. And I never expected The Road to be a hit, not even a moderate hit, it's too true for it's own best. (Reply to this) |
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Andrew W. writes: on Nov 30 2009 09:29 AM In reply to this comment (#2566485) "Road opened in only 111 theaters and averaged a strong $13,721 over three days". -Gitesh Pandya It opened in a very few number of theaters, just because its low on the list doesn't mean it tanked. But the film is a hard ticket to sell due to its story. I don't know why they would have released it over a holiday frame. (Reply to this) |
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KateBeckinsaleLover writes: on Nov 30 2009 12:14 PM I'm really glad that Blind Side is holding up so well. It's definitely one of the best films of the year and I really hope it continues to do this strongly. (Reply to this) |
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