Box office

By DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES

Posted: December 4, 2009 at 4:25 a.m.

• Print item
• E-mail
• Share
• Tweet

HOLLYWOOD — It wasn’t new and it wasn’t in first place, but all eyes were on The Blind Side last weekend as it ran a close second (with $40.1 million) to the vampire-fest sequel of The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

The Blind Side pulled off the rare feat of increasing ticket sales on its second weekend in wide release, nearly pulling off an upset and eclipsing New Moon, which was No. 1 with $42.9 million.

It was an unusual weekend all around at the box office, as none of the three new nationwide releases - Old Dogs, Ninja Assassin and Fantastic Mr. Fox - proved particularly successful, and New Moon plummeted 70 percent from its spectacular debut, but overall receipts nonetheless set a new record.

Ticket sales in the United States and Canada totaled an estimated $275 million from Nov. 25 through Sunday, beating the previous Thanksgiving mark set in 2000 by 12.5 percent, according to Hollywood.

com. While no single movie was huge, nine pictures collected more than $7 million, the first time that has happened since January.

Despite the recession, box office revenue is up 8.4 percent this year. Accounting for ticket price inflation, attendance is up 4.3 percent.

The top 20 movies at U.S.

and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.

com are: 1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Summit, $42,870,031, 4,042 locations, $10,606 average, $230,947,696, two weeks.

2. The Blind Side, Warner Bros., $40,111,364, 3,140 locations, $12,774 average, $100,238,841, two weeks.

3. 2012, Columbia, $17,651,729, 3,444 locations, $5,125 average, $138,451,427, three weeks.

4. Old Dogs, Disney, $16,894,511, 3,425 locations, $4,933 average, $24,228,546, one week.

5. A Christmas Carol, Disney, $15,758,273, 3,013 locations, $5,230 average, $104,927,816, four weeks.

6. Ninja Assassin, Warner Bros., $13,316,158, 2,503 locations, $5,320 average, $21,193,565, one week.

7. Planet 51, Columbia, $10,218,641, 3,035 locations, $3,367 average, $28,487,409, two weeks.

8. Precious, Lionsgate, $7,081,032, 663 locations, $10,680 average, $32,433,482, four weeks.

9. Fantastic Mr. Fox, 20th Century Fox, $6,965,267, 2,033 locations, $3,426 average, $10,024,072, three weeks.

10. The Road, Weinstein Co., $1,502,231, 111 locations, $13,534 average, $1,977,453, one week.

MovieStyle, Pages 39 on 12/04/2009

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.