what's tasty and new in show business. [beta]
Updated: Variety is now reporting that Sunday numbers were stronger than expected, with Avatar’s final tally being $77.3 million to finish ahead of I Am Legend as the best December opening ever.
Despite heavy snowstorms across the American Northeast, James Cameron’s sci fi epic Avatar hauled in an estimated $73 million over the weekend to take the top spot at the box office. That figure put Avatar into the record books as the highest grossing debut ever for a non-sequel/remake/adaptation, and also made it the second-highest opening in December behind just I Am Legend’s $77.2 million back in 2007.
Heavy snowfall bombarded the East Coast over the weekend, which saw marked declines starting Saturday as the brunt of the storm hit. Still, Avatar managed to get a good number of folks to the theater, with 3D presentations accounting for about $52 million of the gross. IMAX doesn’t report its numbers until Monday, but company reps are already saying the film has broken every major IMAX record. An additional $159.18 million came in through international territories, which brought Avatar’s worldwide debut up to a whopping $232.2 million. With movies traditionally gaining steam through Christmas, Avatar is already well on its way to making back its sky-high budget and becoming another stellar blockbuster hit for Cameron.
The other new wide release, Did You Hear About The Morgans?, made virtually no noise in its opening and managed only $7 million for 4th place. Last weekend’s number 1, The Princess and the Frog, fell to second with a $12.2 million showing and brought its total to a so-so $44.8 million. The Blind Side continued its strong run and came in 3rd with $10 million, while The Twilight Saga: New Moon rounded out the top 5 with $4.4 million (and just barely edged out Invictus‘ 6th place, $4.2 million weekend). Read»
Disney’s The Princess and the Frog took the top spot at the weekend box office, expanding wide to earn an estimated $25 million. While not shattering too many records (though it did set the record for highest grossing start for an animated movie in December), Princess‘ numbers were strong considering how 2D animation has declined in recent years. Also, the family-friendly flicks typically build steam through the Christmas season, where slow and steady tends to win the race.
Invictus, the other new wide opener, was unable to gain a foothold in its debut however. Bowing in 3rd place with $9.1 million, the figures were rather disappointing for the star-studded pedigree of the movie’s cast and crew. Director Clint Eastwood and stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon were unable to drum up enough interest in the political/sports hybrid picture, perhaps due to the South African and Rugby setting not clicking with American audiences.
The Blind Side, last week’s reigning champ, fared much better. The football movie held on to 2nd place with only a 23% drop, pulling in $15.5 million in its fourth weekend of release for a $150.2 million total. The Twilight Saga: New Moon continued its steady decline with a 48% drop to $8 million, good enough for 4th place. A Christmas Carol however only dropped off 11.5%, with its holiday theme aligning with the Christmas mood. It finished in 5th place with $6.9 million, bringing its total to $124.5 million. The box office has been particularly strong this year as, in the middle of last week, 2009 officially became the highest grossing year in Hollywood history (though the attendance record in the modern era still belongs to 2002). Read»
The Blind Side finally surpassed The Twilight Saga: New Moon at the weekend box office, taking the number 1 spot with $20.4 million (versus New Moon’s 2nd place $15.7 million) in its third weekend of release. That brought its domestic total to $129.3 million, making Blind Side the highest grossing sports drama on record.
Jim Sheridan’s Brothers finished tops amongst the newcomers, grossing a modest $9.7 million for 3rd place. A Christmas Carol held on for 4th place with $7.5 million, while Old Dogs rounded out the top 5 with $6.9 million. Armored debuted in 6th with a weak $6.6 million, while Robert De Niro’s family dramedy grossed $4 million for 10th place. Transylmania, last among the new wide releases, only scrounged up a woeful $274,000 at 1,007 sites, or a $272 per-theater average. That total is the new record for lowest opening for a movie playing at over 1,000 theaters, and was less than Up in the Air made in limited release at 15 sites. George Clooney’s latest captured a healthy $1.2 million, or a $79,000 average. Read»
Today we get trailers for not one Matt Damon movie, but two! And you know what, this trailer looks just as good as the other one.
Invictus is Clint Eastwood’s latest film sitting in the director’s chair, and this time he’s cast Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, newly in office as the President of South Africa, and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the captain of South Africa’s woeful rugby team. Amidst the powerful racial divide plaguing an anxious population in the wake of Apartheid, Mandela tasks Pienaar with leading the national team to the Rugby World Cup. He believes the universal language of sport is capable of reaching beyond the racial and political upheaval, and that it can speak directly to the human condition as the underdog team rallies an otherwise divided nation together.
We caught the poster a few days ago, which you can find here. Check out the trailer after the jump, or find it on Apple in HD. Read»
We’ve got posters for two upcoming movies today!
The first one is a little old, but better late than never right? Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles stars Zac Efron, Claire Danes, and Christian McKay, and centers on a young and scrappy actor in the 30’s who manages to fanagle his way onto the cast of Welles’ stage production of “Julius Caesar.” If you haven’t already seen the very promising trailer, you can check it out here. Meanwhile, Cinematical debuted the poster a week and a half ago; you can see it below the jump.
The other is the first poster for Invictus, Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela-Francois Pienaar drama, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The film, once titled The Human Factor, centers on South Africa in 1995, when Mandela allied with Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby team, to unite and heal his country after the abolishment of apartheid. That year, the underdog team went on an unlikely run to the Rugby World Cup Championship. Check out the poster below the jump as well, courtesy of Yahoo! Movies.
Read»
