The soft openings for two top franchises bring more bad news to Hollywood: now the industry can’t even bank on retreads
Box Office Report
What If They Gave a New Year’s Eve Party and Nobody Came?
Revelers stay home as the box office slumps to its worst weekend in three years
Twilight Breaking a Record, Moviegoers Breaking Down
Bella and Edward squeezed another win out of a depleted audience, while The Artist, The Descendants and Shame launched their Oscar drives
Twilight Vamps the Muppets
A Children’s Crusade of three new kid-themed movies couldn’t stop Bella and Edward from taking the biggest Thanksgiving bite
Breaking Dawn to Its Critics: “Bite Me”
With nearly $300 million in three days, the vampire epic proves irresistible to its fans and impregnable to reviewers’ scorn
Immortals Outmuscles Adam Sandler. But Still Proves a 97-Pound Weakling
The Greek epic earned $32 million its first weekend, but Modern Warfare 3 did $400 million its first day—so who’s the champion of the young-male demographic?
Puss Boots Tower and Kumar in Another Weakened Weekend
The cartoon cat burglar filched first place from Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy’s crime caper, and left the Asian stoners Harold & Kumar feeling dopey
Puss in Boots Creeps to Halloweekend (and Hallo-weakened) Win
The DreamWorks cat-toon shakes off some spooky hexes — World Series Game 7 and a freak snowstorm — to play tricks on Justin Timberlake and Johnny Depp
Paranormal 3 is Metafantastic
The third in the series of low-budget spook sonatas woke up the sleepy autumn box office with the best-ever opening for an October film
‘Real Steel’ Kicks ‘Footloose,’ Leaves ‘The Thing’ for Dead
For against-the-odds inspiration, it wasn’t as thrilling as the saga of 52-year-old Dewey Bozella, the boxer who spent half his life in prison on a trumped-up murder charge and, after being exonerated, won a unanimous decision …
Box Office Battle of the Hunks: Jackman KO’s Clooney
This weekend, Hugh Jackman needed a boxing robot to help Real Steel win the box office battle, while George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March came in second
Box Office: Surprise! Dolphins and Jesus Beat Cancer and Dead Kids
Parents drove their kids to see family films this weekend, turning the other new movies into roadkill. Audiences had no sixth sense for the Shyamalanish Dream House and 50/50 couldn’t bring moviegoers to its bedside.
Box Office Moneybrawl: The Lion King Edges Brad Pitt’s A’s and the Dolphins Too
According to early studio estimates, Disney’s 3-D re-release of The Lion King will win the weekend box-office race at North American theaters with $22.1 million, a slim 27% drop from last weekend.