‘New Moon’ Gets Blind Sided, Stays on Top

Published by Jeff Leins on: November 30th, 2009

The Twilight Saga: New Moon saw a worthy challenger this weekend in The Blind Side as the feel-good family film competed with emo teens for the holiday crown.  The vampire phenomenon repeated its first place finish, but plummeted 70% to an estimated $42.5 million.

The huge drop places the sequel just outside of the top 50 biggest second weekend falls, according to Box Office Mojo.  Though New Moon still finished 25th on the second weekend grosses of all-time.  A slide was to be expected after a record-breaking debut, but the typical drop for a blockbuster is usually in the 60% range.

The second of the series passed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office on Friday, following a Thanksgiving Day behind The Blind Side, which clearly took a bite out of Twilight’s returns.  The continuation of the Robert Pattinson/Kristen Stewart teen drama currently stands at $230.7 million ($473.7 million worldwide).

The Sandra Bullock drama, The Blind Side, drew $40.1 million on the 3-day weekend (an 18% increase) and a higher per theater average than the Twilight sequel even with considerably less marketing.  Strong word of mouth (74% from critics on RottenTomatoes) boosted the feel-good football film above expectations to a 2 week total of just over $100M and well past its modest $29 million budget.  It’s one of Bullock’s top box office performers and best performances, but early Oscar buzz is far-fetched at best.

Sony’s 2012 stayed strong in third with another $18M and a U.S. total of $138.8 million.

While the top three were holdovers, the holiday frame saw a few newcomers enter the fold.  Disney’s John Travolta/Robin Williams groaner Old Dogs managed $16.8 million in fourth.  It also scored the lowest RottenTomatoes score of the year at 7% and clipped some families from Disney’s other release, expensive motion-capture movie A Christmas Carol, which crawled over the $100M mark on its slow path to recouping double that in production budget alone.

Meanwhile, Disney played its 2D The Princess and the Frog in two theaters (NY and LA) for $712,000.  Then again, tickets were $20-50 for the event where children could meet real-life princesses.  Real ones!  The traditional toon will probably get the biggest push for awards (along with Disney/Pixar’s Up) as the animated movie expands wide on December 11.

Warner Bros also released R-rated bloodbath Ninja Assassin from director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) to a disappointing $13.1 million start.  That might cover the fake blood budget.

Fox’s Fantastic Mr. Fox expanded to a wide release and $7 million.  Not a bad little start for a Wes Anderson film.

3-Day U.S. Weekend Estimates:
1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon  $42.5 million
2. The Blind Side  $40.1 million
3. 2012  $18 million
4. Old Dogs  $16.8 million
5. A Christmas Carol  $16 million
6. Ninja Assassin  $13.1 million
7. Planet 51  $10.2 million
8. Precious  $7.1 million
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox  $7 million
10. The Men Who Stare at Goats  $1.5 million