Weekend Roundup: Enchanted Rules Amid Slow Business

By Katey Rich

It seemed that no one was particularly excited about going to the movies this weekend, but when they did, they chose a bouncy fairy tale story over the rest of their choices. Can't say I blame them. Enchanted ruled the box office for a second weekend in a row, though with a $17 million haul, it represented an abnormally weak weekend, even for the traditionally soft post-Thanksgiving frame. It was the weakest post-Thanksgiving weekend in a decade.

Behind Enchanted, This Christmas and Beowulf held firm in their #2 and #3 slots from last weekend, respectively, with $8.4 million for the holiday-themed family comedy and $7.8 million for the CGI epic. Interestingly, despite Beowulf's great success on 3D and IMAX screens, its tally of $68 million falls just shy of Enchanted's $70 million total, though Beowulf had a weeklong head start.

The weekend's only new wide release, Awake, shuffled in at #4, with $6 million. Behind it was Hitman, which tumbled 56% from its opening weekend to earn $5.8 million. A trio of family holdovers continue to hang around in the top 10, with Fred Claus inexplicably sticking around at #6 ($5.5 million), August Rush also holding steady at #7 ($5.1 million) and Bee Movie tumbling to #9 ($4.5 million, having dropped over 300 theatres for the weekend).

American Gangster fills in the #10 spot with $4.2 million, though it is already receding from theaters. And filling out the top 10 is No Country for Old Men, which comes in at #8 with $4.5 million. It was just behind Enchanted for the best per-theatre average in the top 10, with $4,523.

Below the jump is the full top 20 from Box Office Mojo. Notice that Into the Wild continues playing strongly even in its 11th week of release, and despite my fears it would recede into the darkness, Gone Baby Gone is hanging on in over 400 theatres. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and I'm Not There are staying strong in limited release, while Margot at the Wedding has already dropped out of the top 20 in its third week of release. Also not making the top 20 were two new limited releases this weekend, The Savages and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The Savages slightly outgrossed Diving Bell, playing on one extra screen, but both notched healthy per-theatre averages of $38,250 (Savages) and $25,100 (Diving Bell).

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	1	Enchanted	BV	$17,023,000	-50.6%	3,730	-	$4,563	$70,620,000	-	2
2	2	This Christmas	SGem	$8,400,000	-53.2%	1,858	-	$4,520	$36,891,000	$13	2
3	3	Beowulf	Par.	$7,882,000	-52.3%	3,249	+31	$2,425	$68,613,000	$150	3
4	N	Awake	MGM/W	$6,011,000	-	2,002	-	$3,002	$6,011,000	-	1
5	4	Hitman	Fox	$5,800,000	-56.0%	2,468	+10	$2,350	$30,204,000	-	2
6	6	Fred Claus	WB	$5,500,000	-48.0%	3,420	-183	$1,608	$59,783,000	-	4
7	7	August Rush	WB	$5,150,000	-45.3%	2,310	-	$2,229	$20,354,000	-	2
8	11	No Country for Old Men	Mira.	$4,501,000	-42.1%	995	+135	$4,523	$23,030,000	-	4
9	5	Bee Movie	P/DW	$4,471,000	-62.2%	3,150	-357	$1,419	$117,643,000	$150	5
10	8	American Gangster	Uni.	$4,278,000	-52.5%	2,699	-100	$1,585	$121,732,000	$100	5
11	9	The Mist	MGM/W	$4,245,000	-52.5%	2,423	-	$1,751	$19,255,000	$18	2
12	10	Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium	Fox	$3,250,000	-59.0%	2,860	-308	$1,136	$26,322,000	-	3
13	12	Dan in Real Life	BV	$1,725,000	-42.8%	1,505	+3	$1,146	$44,443,000	-	6
14	15	Before the Devil Knows You're Dead	Think	$822,000	-11.6%	302	+42	$2,721	$4,509,000	-	6
15	17	I'm Not There	Wein.	$489,000	-33.1%	138	+8	$3,543	$1,696,000	-	2
16	16	Bella	RAtt.	$450,000	-39.2%	434	+77	$1,036	$6,818,000	-	6
17	18	Into the Wild	ParV	$448,000	-36.7%	362	+8	$1,237	$15,651,000	-	11
18	21	Gone Baby Gone	Mira.	$403,000	-5.0%	404	+153	$997	$19,615,000	-	7
19	13	Lions for Lambs	UA	$402,000	-65.4%	825	-702	$487	$14,511,000	$35	4
20	19	Michael Clayton	WB	$302,000	-43.7%	251	-50	$1,203	$38,456,000	-	9