‘Blind Side’ is the Weekend Champ

Published by Jeff Leins on: December 8th, 2009

The Blind Side rolled over the competition at the box office this past weekend, adding another $20 million to its growing total. The feel-good football story has already scored $130 million in 18 days on a budget of a mere $35M.

The movie was placed into turnaround by Fox and picked up by Alcon Entertainment.  Warner Bros distributed the sleeper hit, which banked on strong word of mouth like their summer smash The Hangover, Paramount’s viral Paranormal Activity, and Fox’s early Taken.  Blind Side is the only movie in the box office top 10 with a “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon wasn’t able to fend Sandra Bullock off this time, falling to second with yet another sizable drop. The teen vampire/werewolf drama fell 70% last weekend and 64% this one to $15.4 million.  Summit’s sequel has still managed to reach $255 million so far.

Newcomer Brothers, starring Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire, and Jake Gyllenhaal, performed above expectations with $9.5 million in just 2,088 theaters.

It certainly did better than Sony Screen Gem’s new entry, Armored, which only made $6.5 million in seventh place behind several holdovers.

Everybody’s Fine was equally soft in 10th with $3.9M, especially for a Robert De Niro movie.  Oh how the mighty have fallen.  Kate Beckinsale, Drew Barrymore, and Sam Rockwell also star.

The biggest success from the newbies was Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air flying into 15 locations and $1.2 million ($78,632 per theater).  The George Clooney starrer picked up the first award of the season from the National Board of Review and is a front-runner for “Best Picture” in March 2010.

Oscar-hopeful Precious lost some momentum going into the awards season, declining to 12th.  It will likely get a boost when the nominations for the Golden Globes and Academy Awards are unveiled.

3-Day U.S. Weekend Actuals:
1. The Blind Side  $20 million
2. The Twilight Saga: New Moon  $15.4 million
3. Brothers  $9.5 million
4. A Christmas Carol $7.8 million
5. Old Dogs $6.9 million
6. 2012  $6.8 million
7. Armored $6.5 million
8. Ninja Assassin  $5.1 million
9. Planet 51  $4.4 million
10. Everybody’s Fine  $3.9 million