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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. Read»
Michael Jackson’s concert documentary This Is It won the top spot at the box office, grossing an estimated $21.3 million over the weekend to bring its five-day total to $32.5 million.
The total fell well short of expectations, which started out modest but ballooned after strong pre-sales and a $7.4 million Wednesday haul. It seemed most theatergoers itching to see the late King of Pop do his thing one more time showed up on opening day though; Thursday numbers fell to only $3.7 million. The doc did gross $68.5 million in foreign ticket sales however, which brings its 5-day worldwide total to an impressive $101 million. Though This Is It wasn’t able to top the single day or opening weekend figures of Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds, its worldwide sales have already topped the Disney pop princess’ lifetime tally to become the “biggest concert movie of all time” that it was promised to be.
Paranormal Activity continued its strong run, finishing second with $16.5 million. Its total sits at a lofty $84.8 million after 6 weeks. Saw VI meanwhile continued to disappoint, bleeding out to 5th place with $5.6 million for a $22.8 million two-week total. Rounding out the top 5 was Law Abiding Citizen in 3rd with $7.3 million and Couples Retreat in 4th with $6.1 million. Read»
Not too many big ticket items this week, but still plenty of bits that’ll pique your interest. Read»
