'Marley & Me' charms holiday audiences

By Sarah Sluis

When I expressed my skepticism over Marley & Me (a little too adorable-looking, don't you think?), a friend's mother, who had been hyping the film to me, asked if I was ever a dog owner. If I wasn't, she

said, I just wouldn't understand.

Considering the popularity of pooches among families--and that includes critics--PG-rated Marley & Me proved to be the most enticing option for families over the holiday weekend. The critical applause, included that of our reviewer Doris Toumarkine, who called Marley & Me "[P]erfect holiday entertainment. Families, dog lovers and even demanding breeds of filmgoers will adore it." These thumbs-ups helped pull the film to a $51 million finish, 30% more than the runner up, younger-skewing Bedtime Stories.

It makes sense: Marley & Me appealed to families with teen and adult children (my friend's family falling in that category), while Bedtime Stories targeted the narrower crowd that's still telling bedtime stories to each other. The dog-themed success, coupled with this year's earlier surprise smash, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, must be making studios scratch their heads looking around for another dog title to put into development. However, I chance that eventually there will be a burnout in pet pictures. January's kid-adventurer picture Hotel for Dogs might be the canary-in-a-coal-mine test to see if there's any dog-related viewing fatigue. After all, even playing fetch gets old after awhile.

Other family pleasers Yes Man, Seven Pounds, and The Tale of Despereaux, which finished 1-2-3 last week, moved down to fifth, sixth, and seventh, each dropping a similar amount from last week's open. As audiences see their second- and third-pick movies over the coming weeks, one might break ranks and rise above the others.

For adults, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button earned $39 million over the Christmas holiday, while Valkyrie made off with $30 million. Button's expected awards campaign should keep it in a top position in coming weeks, while Valkyrie dies off (just like the hero's Nazi coup!).

Among awards contenders, Revolutionary Road earned the most per-screen, bringing in a $64,000 per-screen average at each of its six locations for a total of $196,000. Waltz with Bashir, a Christmas day-opener set in Israel with special appeal to Jewish filmgoers, earned $10,240 per-screen across five locations, taking advantage of the informal Christmas day viewing tradition among Jews. Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino expanded to 84 locations, but kept its per-screen average at $29,048, bringing its cumulative total to $4.3 million. Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire earned in the $7,000 per-screen range, a performance mitigated by being in a wider release and over a month old. Awards voters are a finicky bunch, but having your opinions reinforced by a wider audience certainly helps when it comes to statuette success.

Full box-office estimates available here.