Box Office Report: Holiday Spectacular 1!

Dude here again. Well, another Boxing Day has come and gone, and with those come all the massive releases. And with those massive releases comes some joy, and some pain, and some dread, but mostly pain. And booze. Lots of booze. I love the holidays.

This weekend, lots of movies opened up, and made a lot of money. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. The actuals will be available on Monday).

1. Marley and Me (Fox) - $37.0, 3480 screens, week 1, $51.6 total

2. Bedtime Stories (BV) - $28.0, 3681 screens, week 1, $38.5 total

3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Par) - $27.0, 2988 screens, week 1, $39.0 total

4. Valkyrie (UA)- $21.5, 2711 screens, week 1, $30.0 total

5. Yes Man (WB)- $16.4, 3434 screens, week 2, $49.5 total

6. Seven Pounds (Sony) - $13.4, 2758 screens, week 2, $39.0 total

7. The Tale of Despereaux (Uni) - $9.3, 3107 screens, week 2, $27.9 total

8. The Day The Earth Stood Still (Fox)- $7.9, 2402 screens, week 3, $63.6 total

9. The Spirit (LGF) - $6.5, 2509 screens, week 1, $10.3 total

10. Doubt (Mir) $5.6, 1267 screens, week 3, $8.8 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means that people really felt the need to see a movie about a family with a terrible dog, which can only mean the floodgates are now wide open for at least a half dozen direct to DVD Beethoven sequels. Marley and Me captured a fair amount of the imagination of the book world, but apparently more people were just waiting for the movie, as it broke records for Christmas Day openings.

Bedtime Stories captured those families that couldn't make it into the one about the dog, and took in a respectable amount, and should prove to have long legs. Close on it's heels is Benjamin Button, where at least one family that couldn't get into the first two movies managed to get into, and then they sat right in front of me and proceeded to ruin the entire movie. But a fair amount of other people were able to enjoy the film, and it should last long into awards season, where it is certain to garner a lot of well deserved nominations.

Bringing up the rear of the new release glut is Tom Cruise (make your own private jokes about Cruise here______ ). Valkyrie proved that you can open a movie about Nazis on Christmas, so long as it's about trying to kill them. A decent message to convey on the day of Jesus' birth. Regardless, the opening is on par for Cruise, and should provide a little bit of stability until Cruise decides to make another movie that just sounds like a bad idea.

Oh, actually, I forgot about The Spirit, a movie nobody was wanting that swept in at the last minute to top a bunch of people's "Worst of '08" lists. I've heard nothing but terrible things about this movie, almost to the point where now I HAVE to see it.

the remaining holdovers from last week have managed remarkably low drops from last week's take. Yes Man and Seven Pounds both took in about 10% less from last weekend, which eases the sting of such low numbers for high profile actors. And for some reason, people continue to see The Day The Earth Stood Still, but I'm attributing that to IMAX, and humanity's innate desire to see Keanu Reeves 60 feet tall.

Below the radar, Revolutionary Road, the last big Oscarbation movie of the season, opened up on 3 screens and took in $192,000. Highest per screen average of the week, people. That's what you get when you clamor for a Titanic reunion.

There you have my amazing break down. Next week, nothing really comes out, which means minor cosmetic changes to my template! Less work for me!!! Happy New Year indeed!

Until next weekend.......
(Spoiler)