‘Christmas Carol’ Wraps Up Top Spot

Published by Jeff Leins on: November 8th, 2009

Disney’s A Christmas Carol topped the domestic box office this weekend with $31 million, besting competition from one of George Clooney’s three movies this season, alien abductions, and the latest from Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly.

The figure for the 3-D winner is on the low end of expectations, but still managed to open larger than Zemeckis’ previous films, including motion capture movies Beowulf and the similarly-themed Polar Express.  The latter opened on this same weekend in 2004 before earning $162M in the States.  With the Yuletide holiday over seven weeks away, the studio still has a chance at recouping its $200 million production budget.

Nothing personal against Disney, but I hope it doesn’t make it.  A less than profitable total means perhaps Robert Zemeckis will put aside this wasteful technique and focus on something better than the twentieth adaptation of a Dickens novel.  Most of the money went towards texturing Jim Carrey’s face for eight different characters, rivaled only in lame spending by a promotional train tour that no one cared about.

When word of mouth gets around from parents upset their kid is having nightmares after a PG movie, this will surely taper off by Thanksgiving.

In second place in its second weekend was the Michael Jackson documentary This Is It at $14 million, but the concert film managed to double that overseas for an international total of around $186 million so far.

Other newcomers were George Clooney comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats scored $13.3 million in third place, Milla Jovovich’s horror/alien flick The Fourth Kind with $12.5M in fourth, and Richard Kelly’s The Box in sixth at only $7.9 million.  The Darko director may be used to tiny theatrical returns, but that’s the lowest Cameron Diaz wide start since 1998.

In the specialty market, the Oscar hopeful and Oprah-endorsed Precious opened on 18 screens in four cities to $1.8 million.  That’s a record-breaking $100,000 per-theater average, the highest of all time for a movie in over 10 locations.

3-Day U.S. Weekend Estimates:
1. A Christmas Carol  $31 million
2. This Is It  $14 million
3. The Men Who Stare at Goats  $13.3 million
4. The Fourth Kind  $12.5 million
5. Paranormal Activity  $8.6 million
6. The Box  $7.9 million
7. Couples Retreat  $6.4 million
8. Law Abiding Citizen  $6.2 million
9. Where the Wild Things Are  $4.2 million
10. Astro Boy  $2.6 million