Man on man – what is going on at the US box office this year? Another weekend down and again, NO ONE went to the movies. The star studded ensemble movie, New Year’s Eve, opened up this weekend to a very modest $13M. An unofficial sequel to Valentine’s Day – which did over $100M at the US box office; $56M on it’s opening weekend –Labeled “The Anti Love, Actually”, New Year’s Eve was universally panned by critics. No one was expecting this movie to win any awards, but only $13M? That doesn’t even cover the payroll on this movie!
Dancing to the song at the dance was Jonah Hill’s final fat movie, The Sitter, which garnered a $10M opening weekend. Like New Year’s Eve, The Sitter was both panned by critics and ignored by movie-goers. Hill’s career thus far has been one of the most fun to watch in a long time. After a string of hits like Super Bad, Get Him To The Greek, and Moneyball, and strong supporting work in Funny People, MegaMind, Night at the Museum 2, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, you would have thought that Hill has enough name and face recognition to carry his own fish-out-of-water comedy. This is the first stumble for Hill after a string of successes dating back to the summer of 2007.
Coming in third place after three weeks of Box Office domination is Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. After an amazing run at the top which netted over $259M at the US box office alone, Breaking Dawn slips to the third spot dropping over 50% week over week. I wish this was a sign that finally America was taking a stand against vampires, but that’s a pipe dream. Let the circus begin – the final installment of Twilight hits theaters in time for Thanksgiving 2012.
Rounding out the top 5 this week are The Muppets reboot, and Arthur Christmas. Both movies, based on the trailer and time of year, should have been MASSIVE hits, but both failed to find an audience. Is everyone just waiting to see Mission: Impossible, or what? I can’t imagine its War Horse that’s going to bring the people back to the Cineplex.
Opening this week we have Sherlock Holmes 2 and Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. Robert Downey Jr. can’t seem to miss, but you never know. We’ll see how he does without his Ironman suit against some CGI rodents and the kid from My Name is Earl.
BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN TOP TEN FOR DECEMBER 9th – 11th
| This Week Position | Last Week Position | Week In Release | Title | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross |
| 1 | N | 1 | New Year’s Eve | $13,705,000.00 | - | $13,705,000.00 |
| 2 | N | 1 | The Sitter | $10,000,000.00 | - | $10,000,000.00 |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 | $7,900,000.00 | -0.522 | $259,500,000.00 |
| 4 | 2 | 3 | The Muppets | $7,073,000.00 | -0.362 | $65,837,000.00 |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | Arthur Christmas | $6,600,000.00 | -0.108 | $33,490,000.00 |
| 6 | 3 | 3 | Hugo | $6,125,000.00 | -0.19 | $33,489,000.00 |
| 7 | 7 | 4 | The Descendants | $4,835,000.00 | 0.009 | $23,635,000.00 |
| 8 | 5 | 4 | Happy Feet Two | $3,750,000.00 | -0.366 | $56,850,000.00 |
| 9 | 6 | 5 | Jack and Jill | $3,200,000.00 | -0.403 | $68,642,000.00 |
| 10 | 8 | 5 | Immortals | $2,442,000.00 | -0.453 | $79,850,000.00 |
