'Christmas' reigns for Disney at the box office
Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 12:07PM | By Franck Tabouring 
Weekend of November 6 – 8, 2009: Scrooge beats goats, aliens and creepy boxes...
As expected, Walt Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” took the No. 1 spot at the North American box office this weekend with a solid $31 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Robert Zemeckis-directed 3D motion-capture adventure based on Charles Dickens’ classic tale opened at 3,683 locations and scored an average of $8,417 per theater, enough to crush its competition.
At No. 2, Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” delivered another strong performance, earning $14 million at 3,481 locations. Sony’s documentary about the late pop star’s planned concert series lifted its total gross to an impressive $57.8 million.
New entry “The Men Who Stare at Goats” opened in third place with $13.3 million this weekend. Playing at 2,443 locations, the film stars George Clooney as a soldier claiming he’s a psychic spy with paranormal powers.
Following at No. 4 with a three-day gross of $12.5 million was new release “The Fourth Kind,” which follows Milla Jovovich in the role of a psychologist treating mentally unstable patients in a small Alaskan town.
Things didn’t go so well for Richard Kelly’s new film “The Box,” which finished sixth with $7.8 million from ticket sales at 2,635 locations. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden play a couple facing a tough decision when they receive a wooden box.
Meanwhile, “Paranormal Activity” slipped to No. 5 this weekend, picking up another solid $8.6 million for a fascinating domestic total of $97.4 million. The surprise horror hit film is now playing at 2,558 sites.
At No. 7, “Couples Retreat” took home $6.4 million, lifting its cumulative gross to $95.9 million after a decent five-week run. Following in eighth place with $6.1 million was “Law Abiding Citizen,” which reached a total haul of $60.8 million.
At the bottom of the top 10, “Where the Wild Things Are” generated $4.2 million at No. 9 ($69.2 million total), while “Astro Boy” collected $2.5 million for a cume of $15 million.
Also noteworthy this weekend was the solid opening performance by “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire,” which bagged $1.8 million from ticket sales at only 18 locations.
Source: Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)
Reader Comments (1)
It will be upto International box office to make it's money back .I think it's budget is around 180 millions and no way I see this making that much money domestically .And I got the news that Michale Jackson's Movie is still topping the international box office by making $29 million this weekend -- a 58 percent drop over last week.And A Christmas Carol came in at second place by making $12 million at 2,750 screens in 18 territories for a per-screen average of $4,364.Christmas Carol has to pick up internationally otherwise it wouldn't be considered a hit .