Weekend Roundup: Back to Bee-siness

By Katey Rich

There may in fact be second acts in America, but there are rarely second acts in the American box office. But Bee Movie pulled it off this weekend, pulling a surprise #1 spot for the weekend by inching just $2 million past last week's top movie, American Gangster. Bee Movie dropped only 31% from last weekend to bring in $26 million, while Gangster stuck close behind with $24.3 million.

The holdover success of these titles is due largely to limp openings from the two big releases of the weekend, Fred Claus and Lions for Lambs. The family-friendly Claus snuck into third place with $19 million; while that's reportedly below studio expectations, Warner Bros. insisted to The Hollywood Reporter that Christmas movies are "a marathon and not a sprint." Lambs fell well below hopes for a $10 million draw, ranking in fourth place for the weekend with $6.7 million; negative reviews and constant media reports of "war movie fatigue" couldn't have helped the project.

The other wide release of the weekend, horror movie P2, fell into eighth place with a $2.2 million take. It remained overshadowed by fellow horror draw Saw IV, which was at #6 with $5 million, and came in just ahead of 30 Days of Night, coming in at #9 with $2 million. Other holdovers included the steady Dan in Real Life at #5 ($5.8 million), the unstoppable The Game Plan at #7 ($2.4 million in its seventh week!) and Martian Child, threatening to drop out of the top 10 after only its second weekend with a dismal $1.7 million take.

Falling outside the top ten at #15, but with a spectacular per-theatre average of $42,928, was No Country for Old Men, by far the best-reviewed release of the weekend. I saw this one at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night in a packed house, and wouldn't be surprised if it continues drawing such high numbers before it goes wide at the end of the month (everyone I saw it with is ready to go again).

After the jump are the full results from Box Office Mojo. Note that Gone Baby Gone, Across the Universe and The Darjeeling Limited are all quickly shedding screens, and the bonus #21 inclusion of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which continues to boost its audience in moderately limited release (122 screens).

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	2	Bee Movie	P/DW	$26,000,000	-31.6%	3,944	+16	$6,592	$72,214,000	$150	2
2	1	American Gangster	Uni.	$24,319,000	-44.2%	3,059	+5	$7,949	$80,679,000	$100	2
3	N	Fred Claus	WB	$19,225,000	-	3,603	-	$5,335	$19,225,000	-	1
4	N	Lions for Lambs	UA	$6,710,000	-	2,215	-	$3,029	$6,710,000	-	1
5	4	Dan in Real Life	BV	$5,872,000	-25.4%	1,941	+16	$3,025	$30,678,000	-	3
6	3	Saw IV	LGF	$5,010,000	-51.6%	2,904	-279	$1,725	$58,086,000	-	3
7	5	The Game Plan	BV	$2,410,000	-38.7%	2,161	-683	$1,115	$85,414,000	-	7
8	N	P2	Sum.	$2,200,000	-	2,131	-	$1,032	$2,200,000	-	1
9	6	30 Days of Night	Sony	$2,100,000	-43.9%	1,696	-931	$1,238	$37,358,000	$30	4
10	7	Martian Child	NL	$1,750,000	-48.2%	2,020	-	$866	$6,013,000	-	2
11	8	Michael Clayton	WB	$1,660,000	-40.4%	1,150	-957	$1,443	$35,594,000	-	6
12	9	Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married	LGF	$1,610,000	-38.2%	908	-495	$1,773	$53,295,000	-	5
13	10	Gone Baby Gone	Mira.	$1,510,000	-32.5%	957	-660	$1,577	$17,110,000	-	4
14	N	Om Shanti Om	Eros	$1,500,000	-	114	-	$13,157	$1,500,000	-	1
15	N	No Country for Old Men	Mira.	$1,202,000	-	28	-	$42,928	$1,202,000	-	1
16	14	Into the Wild	ParV	$1,113,000	-13.7%	590	-70	$1,886	$12,546,000	-	8
17	17	Bella	RAtt.	$1,006,000	-6.8%	276	+90	$3,644	$3,871,000	-	3
18	11	Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D (2007 re-issue)	BV	$854,000	-44.0%	473	-89	$1,805	$14,093,000	-	4
19	16	Across the Universe	SonR	$850,000	-29.6%	582	-240	$1,460	$22,353,000	-	9
20	15	The Darjeeling Limited	FoxS	$825,000	-32.4%	386	-229	$2,137	$9,308,000	-	7
21	23	Before the Devil Knows You're Dead	Think	$690,000	+86.2%	122	+79	$5,655	$1,308,000	-	3