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)

(more…)

Of the four new movies, the holiday comedy Four Christmases was the highest earner of the new bunch, making more money than the other 3 new movies combined during the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend.

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (studio estimates)
1. “Four Christmases” – $31.68 million (1st week)

2. “Bolt” – $26.60 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, gained 1% more than its audience from last week)

3. “Twilight” – $26.37 million 
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 62% of its audience from last week)

4. “Quantum of Solace” - $19.50 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 27% of its audience from last week)

5. “Australia” – $14.82 million (1st week)

(more…)

(UPDATED WITH final numbers)
Well, if I was picking winners of the weekend football games, I would be 5 out of 10 in MY WEEKEND BOX OFFICE PREDICTION: – with 1st, 4th, 7th, 9th, and 10th place right….

The #1 movie – “Madagascar 2″ wasn’t just #1, it was a smash hit with $63 million – that’s a bigger opening than these other family movies: “High School Musical 3″ ($42 million)… more than “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” ($29 million)… “Horton Hears a Who!” ($45 million)… …only “WALL-E” ($63 million) and “Kung Fu Panda” ($60 million) had opening weekends as big !!!!   Its actually the 5th biggest opening of the year!

The weekend’s #2 movie “Role Models” cruised in with a solid showing of nearly $20 million… as the alternative choice to “Madagascar 2″.

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (ACTUAL results):

1. “Madagascar 2: Ecsape to Africa” – $63.11 million (1st week)

2. “Role Models” – $19.17 million (1st week)

3. “High School Musical 3” - $9.16 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

4. “Changeling” - $7.25 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 22% of its audience from last week)

(more…)

(RE-POSTING from 11/3/08,
I’ve re-posted this as best as possible, I’m still trying to recover complete original post)

“Changeling” is a spectacular 9.5 that grabs hold of your heartstrings, as the actors tackle difficult subject matter like pros, Clint Eastwood gets another cast to step up their performances – this movie is Academy Award worthy on so many levels: acting, story, directing, costumes, sets, etc…

“Changeling”

(2008) (rated: R for some violent and disturbing content, and language) (2 hr, 21 min)

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Gattlin Griffith, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore, Michael Kelly, Frank Wood, Michelle Martin, Devon Conti, Amy Ryan, Jason Butler Harner, Eddie Alderson

Director: Clint Eastwood

Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery/True Story

The Plot: A mother’s prayer for her kidnapped son to return home is answered, though it doesn’t take long for her to suspect the boy who comes back is not hers.

MY TAKE:

… (more…)

(RE-POSTING FROM 11/3)

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “High School Musical 3” - $15.31 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 64% of its audience from last week)

2. “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” - $10.07 million (1st week)

3. “Saw V” - $9.74 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 68% of its audience from last week)

4. “Changeling” - $9.35 million (1st week of wide release)
(2nd week, was #20 last week, gained 1800% of its audience from last week)

5. “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” - $5.42 million (1st week) (more…)

On this Halloween weekend, you can be scared or watch some movies that aren’t really scary… or rent some family friendly movies like “Journey” or “Kit Kittredge”…

(more…)

UPDATED September 24, 2008 at 1:00pm:

“Release Dates Are Subject to Change” … glad I added that to this list… because one date change pushed a movie completely out of the Fall/Winter season… “Taken” moves from September 19th to January 23rd !!!  Also moving: “Crossing Over” moves from October 24th to December 3rd and “Blindness” moves from September 26th to October 3rd.

That means “Blindness” moves into to my “15 to See”:

“Blindness” (October 3rd) – everyone is going blind.. except for Julianne Moore… sounds crazy!

.

And that means “The Lucky Ones” (September 26-limited release) moves on to my “Honorable Mentions” list…

Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, and Michael Peña star as three soldiers that meet one another as they have all returned from Iraq, and circumstance unites them for a road trip across the country.

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Originally Published: September 5, 2008 at 10:48am:

The first week of September… its a signal of back to school and the end of the summer movie season… and I’ve got 15 movies for you to look forward to during the Fall/Holiday Movie Season…

Laff’s Fall/Holiday Movie Preview – 15 to see

15 is a bonus… some people give you a Top 10… but I’m giving you 15…  15 movies over the next 4 months that are likely to be big at the box office and/or fill out the ballots for Academy Award consideration !!!!

(release dates are subject to change)

“Burn After Reading” (September 12th)

New comedy-drama from Ethan and Joel Cohen… with a great cast and cool trailer!!!

Watch the “Burn After Reading” trailer at trailerspy.com

Starring: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons

Plot: A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it.

Early look at “Burn After Reading”

—-

“Righteous Kill” (September 12th)

I was ready for this one as soon as they announced Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino would be in the movie together … and they are both police officers.. and the trailer solidified it for me!

“Righteous Kill” trailer at trailerpsy.com

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, 50 Cent, Carla Gugino, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy

Plot: Two veteran New York City detectives (De Niro and Pacino) work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?

—-

“Taken” (now January 23rd )

I can’t wait to see Liam Neeson back in a leading role kicking some butt !!

Watch the ”Taken” trailer at trailerspy.com

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, (more…)

The first week of September… its a signal of back to school and the end of the summer movie season… and I’ve got 15 movies for you to look forward to during the Fall/Holiday Movie Season…

Laff’s Fall/Holiday Movie Preview – 15 to see

15 is a bonus… some people give you a Top 10… but I’m giving you 15…  15 movies over the next 4 months that are likely to be big at the box office and/or fill out the ballots for Academy Award consideration !!!!

(release dates are subject to change)

“Burn After Reading” (September 12th)

New comedy-drama from Ethan and Joel Cohen… with a great cast and cool trailer!!!

Watch the “Burn After Reading” trailer at trailerspy.com

Starring: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons

Plot: A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it.

Early look at “Burn After Reading”

—-

“Righteous Kill” (September 12th)

I was ready for this one as soon as they announced Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino would be in the movie together … and they are both police officers.. and the trailer solidified it for me!

“Righteous Kill” trailer at trailerpsy.com

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, 50 Cent, Carla Gugino, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy

Plot: Two veteran New York City detectives (De Niro and Pacino) work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?

—-

“Taken” (September 19th)

I can’t wait to see Liam Neeson back in a leading role kicking some butt !!

Watch the ”Taken” trailer at trailerspy.com

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, (more…)