The Black Box Office Report – November 23, 2009

The holiday movie season has begun!

If the government wants evidence that the economy may be turning around…this weekend’s box office may be a place to start looking.

This weekend, mainstream movies brought in just under 250 million dollars. Most of that was one movie. The second Twilight film, “New Moon”, is now the third biggest opening in history, behind Spider Man 3 and The Dark Knight.

The sequel to “Twilight” brought in $140 million this weekend. That’s a lotta teenage girls. Or, a lotta people interested in new takes on classic horror stories. So…basically we have to water “Wild Seed” down and we’ve got a deal? If you owned one of the 4,024 theaters playing “New Moon”, you saw $34,965 come in the door this weekend.

Great business!

“The Blind Side” blindsided everyone to become the “#2 movie” this weekend. It opened in 3110 theaters and made $34,510,000. That’s about $11,000 per house this weekend.

“2012″ fell off a bit, though not as bad as Los Angeles in the movie. It has now made $108 million. Of course, it cost $200 million to make, so we’ve got a ways to go.

The aforementioned teenage girls dumped their younger geeky science whiz brothers off at theater #5, where they saw “Planet 51″ and apparently loved it, as the film squeezed a very realistic $12,600,000 out of 3,035 theaters. Dwayne Johnson stars in this animated film as an astronaut who lands on an alien planet — and is treated as such.

But you know what ELSE happened this weekend? “Precious” opened in 692 theaters, and became an very profitable film. The $10 million dollar independent drama has now made $21,403,000 in three weeks. Two of those weeks, most of you reading this couldn’t even see the film. It’s officially down to #6 on the board, but at $17,501 per theater this weekend, if you owned a theater and were showing it, this was your #2 biggest film. It joins “Law Abiding Citizen” as a profitable top 10 film by a Black director this week.

It should also be noted that Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces” opened in 2 theaters this week, and brought in $108,000! If you’ve never seen an Almodovar picture, here’s a great chance to do so, if you live near one of these theaters. The film stars Penelope Cruz, who grew up a fan of Almodovar.

Here’s the rest of the box office for the weekend:

1 Twilight Saga: New Moon Summit $140,700,000
2 The Blind Side Warner Bros. $34,510,000
3 2012 Sony $26,500,000
4 Planet 51 Sony $12,600,000
5 A Christmas Carol Disney $12,230,000
6 Precious Lionsgate $11,008,000
7 The Men Who Stare At Goats Overture $2,773,000
8 Couples Retreat Universal $1,952,000
9 The Fourth Kind Universal $1,730,000
10 Law Abiding Citizen Overture $1,615,000

Disney’s “Princess and the Frog” opened this weekend, but only in two theaters. The national opening isn’t until December 11. Thta’s the same day as Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood‘s “Invictus” and Broken Lizard’s “The Slammin Salmon”, starring Michael Clarke Duncan.

But this week, “Ninja Assassin” and “Old Dogs” open.

Our review of “Ninja Assassin”, starring Korean pop singer and movie star Rain, is up now.