By Katey Rich
'Tis the season for sweeping fantasy epics... or at least, that's the way it used to be. Taking advantage of the pre-holiday release slot that rocketed The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings trilogy to box office bonanzas, The Golden Compass managed to snag the #1 spot for the weekend, but with a paltry $26 million take. Compare that to the $65 million The Chronicles of Narnia brought in over the same period two years ago, and you can practically hear the screams of anguish over at New Line.
Everything else pretty much fell into its expected place behind Compass. Enchanted keeps rolling merrily along, coming it at #2 with $10 million, and This Christmas continued marching behind it at #3, bringing in $5 million. Yes, that's right: The #3 movie of the weekend made just $5 million. Slow days indeed.
Fred Claus continues to blow my mind by actually making a profit, and it even surpassed Beowulf this weekend, coming it at #4 with $4.6 million. The Danish warrior, on the other hand, had to settle for #5 and $4.4 million. The message that this turn of events is sending to the studios-- Vince Vaughn and elves > groundbreaking animation-- is ugly, and too depressing to think about this early in the week.
In happier news, No Country for Old Men moved up to #6 after adding 329 screens and another $4.2 million to its total gross of $28 million. Thanks for restoring my faith in the movies, Coens! August Rush continued its steady run at #7, making $3.5 million. Dropping quickly on their way to oblivion were Hitman and Awake, which made $3.4 million and $3.3 million respectively. And rounding out the top ten was Bee Movie, which made another $2.6 million but has still not surpassed the gross of American Gangster, the fellow blockbuster that opened on the same weekend; Gangster currently sits at #12.
The other buzzed-about new releases of the weekend debuted on much smaller scales, but still brought in strong paydays: Atonement made $817,000 from 32 screens, for a $25,231 average, while Juno brought in $420,000 from 7 screens for a whopping $60,000 average. Both will expand wider as the month--and awards season--continue.
After the jump is the full top 20 from Box Office Mojo. Worth noting: People are still seeing Dan in Real Life! And Into the Wild! And Before the Devil Knows You're Dead! Nice to see some staying power in a world where Awake and Hitman keep disappointing us. Oh, who are we kidding? Those movies were made for disappointment.
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
| 1 | N | The Golden Compass | NL | $26,125,000 | - | 3,528 | +2,649 | $7,405 | $26,125,000 | $180 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Enchanted | BV | $10,706,000 | -34.7% | 3,520 | -210 | $3,041 | $83,865,000 | - | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | This Christmas | SGem | $5,000,000 | -37.0% | 1,879 | +21 | $2,660 | $42,760,000 | $13 | 3 |
| 4 | 6 | Fred Claus | WB | $4,660,000 | -15.3% | 3,185 | -235 | $1,463 | $65,589,000 | - | 5 |
| 5 | 2 | Beowulf | Par. | $4,400,000 | -46.4% | 2,976 | -273 | $1,478 | $75,983,000 | $150 | 4 |
| 6 | 10 | No Country for Old Men | Mira. | $4,233,000 | -3.5% | 1,324 | +329 | $3,197 | $28,861,000 | - | 5 |
| 7 | 7 | August Rush | WB | $3,525,000 | -29.8% | 2,310 | - | $1,525 | $25,148,000 | - | 3 |
| 8 | 4 | Hitman | Fox | $3,475,000 | -42.3% | 2,418 | -50 | $1,437 | $35,810,000 | - | 3 |
| 9 | 5 | Awake | MGM/W | $3,301,000 | -43.6% | 2,023 | +21 | $1,631 | $10,716,000 | - | 2 |
| 10 | 9 | Bee Movie | P/DW | $2,612,000 | -41.2% | 2,707 | -443 | $964 | $121,028,000 | $150 | 6 |
| 11 | 8 | The Mist | MGM/W | $2,560,000 | -43.8% | 2,336 | -87 | $1,095 | $23,407,000 | $18 | 3 |
| 12 | 11 | American Gangster | Uni. | $2,558,000 | -40.0% | 2,132 | -567 | $1,199 | $125,574,000 | $100 | 6 |
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| 13 | 12 | Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium | Fox | $2,000,000 | -38.7% | 2,341 | -519 | $854 | $28,977,000 | - | 4 |
| 14 | 13 | Dan in Real Life | BV | $1,069,000 | -35.9% | 1,251 | -254 | $854 | $45,910,000 | - | 7 |
| 15 | N | Atonement | Focus | $817,000 | - | 32 | - | $25,531 | $817,000 | - | 1 |
| 16 | 14 | Before the Devil Knows You're Dead | Think | $645,000 | -15.9% | 321 | +19 | $2,009 | $5,357,000 | - | 7 |
| 17 | N | Juno | FoxS | $420,000 | - | 7 | - | $60,000 | $531,000 | - | 1 |
| 18 | 16 | Into the Wild | ParV | $360,000 | -20.2% | 360 | -2 | $1,000 | $16,198,000 | - | 12 |
| 19 | 15 | I'm Not There | Wein. | $358,000 | -27.7% | 148 | +10 | $2,418 | $2,239,000 | - | 3 |
| 20 | 17 | Bella | RAtt. | $292,000 | -32.0% | 402 | -33 | $726 | $7,249,000 | - | 7 |
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