Four Christmases tops box office for second straight week

It was a down weekend for theaters and studios, with numbers down significanty from Thanksgiving weekend.  The weekend’s poorly reviewed new release of Punisher: War Zone and the limited distribution of the other new releases Cadillac Records and Nobel Son and the fact that this wasn’t the big movie watching Thanksgiving weekend all added up to a loss of 50% nationwide and the 3rd lowest total box office since kids went back to school in September.   Twilight and Australia both moved up one spot from last week as they lost less of their audience than Bolt and Quantum of Solace.

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (studio estimates)
1. “Four Christmases” – $18.18 million
(2nd week at #1, lost 42% of its audience from last week)

2. “Twilight” – $13.20 million 
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 50% of its audience from last week)

3. “Bolt” – $9.70 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 64% of its audience from last week)

4. “Australia” – $7.00 million
(2nd week, was #5 last week, lost 53% of its audience from last week) 

5. “Quantum of Solace” - $6.60 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 65% of its audience from last week)

6. “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” – $5.10 million 
(5th week, was #6 last week, lost 64% of its audience from last week)

7. “Transporter 3″ – $4.50 million
(2nd week, was #7 last week, lost 63% of its audience from last week)

8. “Punisher: War Zone” – $4.00 million (1st week)

9. “Cadillac Records” – $3.50 million (1st week) (limited release: 686 theaters)

10. “Role Models” – $2.62 million
(5th week, was #8 last week, lost 50% of its audience from last week)

- – -

11. “Milk” – $1.69 million  (limited release: 99 theaters)
(2nd week, was #10 last week, gained 16% more than its audience from last week, added 63 more theaters)

12. “Slumdog Millionaire” – $1.41 million  (limited release: 78 theaters)
(4th week, was #11 last week, gained 5% more than its audience from last week, added 29 more theaters)

13. “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” – $1.69 million  (limited release: 678 theaters)
(5th week, was #9 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

14. “Changeling” - $0.50 million
(7th week, was #12 last week, lost 50% of its audience from last week)

15. ”Nobel Son” – $0.37 million (1st week) (limited release: 893 theaters)

Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“Four Christmases” poster courtesy New Line Cinema