A CHRISTMAS CAROL Scrooge’d At The Box Office
The holiday box office season was kicked off to a chilly start with the debut of Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol. Despite having Jim Carrey take on the lead and being pushed with the Disney Digital 3D tag, the performance-captured film was only able to gross a disappointing $31 million to take the top spot.
Considering its $200 million budget and Madagascar 2’s $63 million debut in the same frame last year, there wasn’t much merriment coming from Disney’s offices. However, Zemeckis’ last mo-capped Christmas film The Polar Express also had a shaky $23.3 million start before chugging to a $160+ million domestic gross over its holiday season run. Carol doesn’t have much direct competition through the winter season either, so it may find a foothold yet.
The Men Who Stare at Goats bowed above expectations with a decent $13.3 million haul for 3rd place. The Fourth Kind, meanwhile, came in right behind in 4th with $12.5 million. Richard Kelly’s The Box however was unable to find an audience, with the esoteric director’s third feature debuting in 6th place with a sub-par $7.9 million. As for last weekend’s number 1, Michael Jackson’s This Is It dropped to second with $14 million, while Paranormal Activity rounded out the top 5 with $8.6 million to come just short of the $100 million mark.
The real success at the box office this weekend was Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire’s 13th place opening, which smashed limited release records with $1.8 million across 18 sites, or a $100,000 per-theater average. Splinterheads also bowed in limited release with $12,000 at one site.
Next week, Roland Emmerich tries to end the world again with disaster epic 2012. Pirate Radio, the British comedy from Richard Curtis that was previously known as The Boat That Rocked, will also go wide at around 900 venues. 2012, with its 3000+ theater release, should obviously come in first. The record stands at 49 for 64.
Check out the top 12 below or head on over to Box Office Mojo for the full weekend chart:
New releases highlighted in yellow
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
| 1 | N | A Christmas Carol (2009) | BV | $31,000,000 | - | 3,683 | - | $8,417 | $31,000,000 | $200 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Michael Jackson’s This Is It | Sony | $14,000,000 | -39.7% | 3,481 | - | $4,022 | $57,855,000 | - | 2 |
| 3 | N | The Men Who Stare at Goats | Over. | $13,309,000 | - | 2,443 | - | $5,448 | $13,309,000 | $25 | 1 |
| 4 | N | The Fourth Kind | Uni. | $12,521,000 | - | 2,527 | - | $4,955 | $12,521,000 | - | 1 |
| 5 | 2 | Paranormal Activity | Par. | $8,600,000 | -47.5% | 2,558 | +154 | $3,362 | $97,430,000 | $0.015 | 7 |
| 6 | N | The Box | WB | $7,855,000 | - | 2,635 | - | $2,981 | $7,855,000 | $25 | 1 |
| 7 | 4 | Couples Retreat | Uni. | $6,428,000 | -0.5% | 2,857 | -169 | $2,250 | $95,980,000 | $70 | 5 |
| 8 | 3 | Law Abiding Citizen | Over. | $6,172,000 | -16.6% | 2,474 | -290 | $2,495 | $60,873,000 | $50 | 4 |
| 9 | 5 | Where the Wild Things Are | WB | $4,225,000 | -28.8% | 2,756 | -889 | $1,533 | $69,268,000 | $100 | 4 |
| 10 | 7 | Astro Boy | Sum. | $2,588,000 | -25.2% | 1,918 | -1,102 | $1,349 | $15,073,000 | $65 | 3 |
| 11 | 6 | Saw VI | LGF | $2,000,000 | -62.1% | 2,091 | -945 | $956 | $26,220,000 | $11 | 3 |
| 12 | 8 | The Stepfather (2009) | SGem | $1,875,000 | -41.5% | 1,424 | -922 | $1,317 | $27,490,000 | $20 | 4 |
Tags: 2012, A Christmas Carol, Box Office, Paranormal Activity, Pirate Radio, Precious, Splinterheads, The Box, The Fourth Kind, The Men Who Stare At Goats, This Is It
