Box Office Report: Giving Thanks

Dude here again. Coming to you with at the tail end of an over-stuffed holiday weekend. I had a glorious holiday and celebratory weekend, that was full of food and laughs and good times and movies. Movies that included vampires and werewolves and footballs and old dogs. And a ninja. That was an assassin.

Which would make him a Ninja Assassin!

This weekend, a lot of things remained in the same place, while some newcomers tried to sit at the big kids' table. 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. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Sum)- $42.5, 4042 screens, week 2, $230.6 total

2. The Blind Side (WB) - $40.1, 3140 screens, week 2, $100.2 total

3. 2012 (Sony) - $18.0, 3444 screens, week 3, $138.7 total

4. Old Dogs (BV)- $16.8, 3425 screens, week 1, $24.0 total

5. A Christmas Carol (BV) - $16.0, 3013 screens, week 4, $105.3 total

6. Ninja Assassin (WB) $13.1, 2503 screens, week 1, $21.0 total

7. Planet 51 (Sony)- $10.2, 3035 screens, week 2, $28.4 total

8. Precious... (LGF) - $7.09, 663 screens, week 4, $32.4 total

9. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Fox)- $7.02, 2033 screens, week 3, $10.1 total

10. The Men Who Stare At Goats (Over) - $1.5, 1119 screens, week 4, $30.5 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means that Twilight surpassed it's original take, and took in even more money! Although, it should be noted that hot on its' heels is The blind Side, which sort of came out of nowhere to become a smash hit, and even took in more on Thanksgiving day than Twilight! From Mall Cop to Taken to Hangover to District 9 to Blind Side, it's been a crazy year for movies that you never would think could make the amounts of money they did.

Old Dogs, a movie that boasts a final Bernie Mac appearance AND quite possibly the worst reviews of the year (the most venomous, at least) managed to pull in $24 million in five days. This brings me back to that angry place I was telling you about a few weeks ago.

Ninja Assassin opened up decently for a ninja movie, against the other movies, but seriously, people, couldn't we have scrounged some change up and given more to the cause of ninja movies? Because if one does well, that means we get more, and we need more ninja movies than vampire movies these days.

Fantastic Mr. Fox made it's way up the charts in wider release, and did alright. If you haven't already, check out this AWESOME INTERVIEW I did with Wes Anderson promoting the film!

Below the radar, The Weinstein Company finally saw fit to release The Road on 111 screens. The post-apocalyptic downer took in just over $2 million over the five day holiday period. Also opening, on evening fewer screens, and boasting the largest per screen average of the week is the new 2D Disney animated Princess and the Frog, which took in $1.1 million on 2 screens in 5 days. Good to know Disney still owns the market on the exclusive animated release.

There you have my amazing break down. Next week things slow down as we make it towards the end of the year, as more Oscar bait and limited releases come up, and fanboys' hearts palpitate for Avatar.

Until next weekend.......