'Four Christmases' dominates the box office

[DirtyKash]

$46.7 million over five days for a movie that has Vince Vaughn in it is pretty damn impressive. Everyone's most hated movie of the year, Twilight, still did well in its second week.

The long, always competitive Thanksgiving weekend is over and Four Christmases has decked the halls with a big box office victory, easily outpacing Twilight, Australia, and all the rest of the movies at the multiplex along the way.

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon's comedy won the robust weekend with a much-better-than-expected $46.7 mil from Wednesday through Sunday, according to early estimates. That makes it the third-best Thanksgiving weekend opener ever, after Toy Story 2 ($80.1 mil) and last year's Enchanted ($49.1 mil). The film also grossed a hefty $31.7 mil over the traditional three-day weekend (and fair warning, I'm going to be giving both five-day and three-day totals in this report, so get focused, you know, drink some coffee before reading on, or something). That's Vaughn's top premiere sum since The Break-Up's $39.2 mil two and a half years ago, and Witherspoon's best bow since Sweet Home Alabama's $35.6 mil more than six years back.

Credit a somewhat older, female audience that gave the movie a so-so CinemaScore grade of B. But, as I have said before, all of those statistics don't matter much when you consider one important fact: With the word "Christmas" in the title, this film is sure to hang on well into the yuletide season.

Twilight (No. 2) was next in the five-day rankings, with $39.5 mil, although its three-day weekend total was a more disappointing $26.4 mil, a steep 62 percent drop from its huge debut a week ago. Still, the Stephenie Meyer saga continues to draw in teen girls, and it crossed the $100 mil mark in just eight days (its domestic haul is $119.7 mil), so there's still plenty of good news there.

Third place over the long weekend went to Bolt, which grossed $36 mil from Wednesday through Sunday, and $26.6 mil in the three-day frame (sure enough, that's more than Twilight banked in the same period). Thus, Disney's animated feature enjoyed a rare thing in box office land: A week-to-week gain. Bolt was up 1 percent from its debut sum of $26.2 mil last time around. So, yeah, get accustomed to seeing this film in your local movie listings for weeks to come.

Quantum of Solace (No. 4) held strong with $28.1 mil over five days and $19.5 mil over three; its domestic sum is a stellar $142.1 mil to date. The Nicole Kidman-Hugh Jackman-Baz Luhrmann epic spectacle, Australia, rounded out the top five with an unspectacular $20 mil over five days and just $14.8 mil over three (this despite an A- CinemaScore grade from a largely older-woman audience). And Transporter 3 (No. 7) was also an afterthought with $18.5 mil from Wednesday through Sunday and $12.3 mil on the three-day weekend.

Indeed, there's no need to waste time talking about those films when we can applaud Gus Van Sant's limited-release biopic Milk, which cracked the top 10 while playing in only 36 theaters. The Sean Penn starrer grossed $1.9 mil over the five-day frame and $1.4 mil from Friday through Sunday, a marvelous average of $38,375 per venue.

Overall, the cumulative box office total was up about 4 percent from Thanksgiving weekend a year ago, when Enchanted and This Christmas led the way. And if you'll excuse me now, I'm going to start work on a movie I've been thinking about making -- it's called Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, and although I only have a title, I know it's gonna be a blockbuster.

[Kingdom]

Credit a somewhat older, female audience that gave the movie a so-so CinemaScore grade of B

Awww, DK and his mom went.

[NYgiantsfan5689]

I'm really not a big fan of Vince Vaughn. This movie looked stupid

[love_that_reefer]

And people think I am the stupid one when I say that most Americans are the real dumb ones.

[TheRollingStoned]

Twilight? ...I TOOK A SHIT ON THE NOVEL... FELT GOOD

[DirtyKash]

Four Christmases wins again, while the sequel to the Punisher was a huge flop. Frost/Nixon did pretty well in limited release and from the trailers, it looks like a solid movie despite Frank Langella looking absolutely nothing like Nixon.

'Four Christmases' wins slow weekend at the box office

Dec 7, 2008, 01:16 PM | by Joshua Rich

With the annual post-Thanksgiving multiplex malaise setting in and just one big new movie (Punisher: War Zone, which I'll get to later...uh, much later) in theaters, the box office results remarkably resembled those of a week ago.

So, yep, you guessed it: Four Christmases was No. 1 with $18.2 million, according to Sunday's estimates. That brings the holiday comedy's two-week sum to a sweet $70.8 mil--and it restores my confidence in Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as box office draws. For now, at least.

The rest of the top five was comprised of the same movies we've been seeing for a while now. Twilight moved back up to the No. 2 spot with a tidy $13.2 mil haul; its three-week sum is $138.6 mil. Bolt (No. 3) followed with $9.7 mil, a huge and surprising 64 percent decline from its impressive Thanksgiving weekend sum. Australia declined 53 percent to bank $7 mil at No. 4. And Quantum of Solace (No. 5) grossed $6.6 mil and crossed the $500 mil mark worldwide.

Among major new releases, the biggest was hardly the baddest: Punisher: War Zone (No. 8) grossed a mere $4 mil in 2,508 theaters, a tally that's way off from the $13.8 mil that The Punisher premiered with in 2004. More punishment: The Marvel franchise reboot failed to defeat even last week's action disappointment, Transporter 3 (which was No. 7 with $4.5 mil). Ouch! Meanwhile, the other sorta-substantial new movie, Cadillac Records (No. 9), fared a bit better, bringing in a decent $3.5 mil in 686 locations. But the indie drama Nobel Son failed to take any prize (except, perhaps, that of Box Office Flop of the Week), grossing just $370,575 in 893 venues--a redonkulously low average of $415 per theater.

Nay, the only real news of note came in the ultra-limited-release sphere, where the buzzy drama Frost/Nixon debuted with a tremendous $60,049 average in three theaters in New York, L.A., and Toronto. The Oscar contender will roll out wider in the coming weeks.

Overall, the slow box office was actually up more than 6 percent from the same (even slower) frame a year ago, when The Golden Compass bowed to disappointing returns. That makes this the fifth straight "up" weekend of the fall season, and all things considered, it should be enough to spread some holiday cheer in Hollywood.

[NYgiantsfan5689]

are you kidding? i think they did a great job making him look like nixon

[DirtyKash]

It's as close as we can hope for, I guess. I dunno, something doesn't look right.

[browntown653]

Frank Langella reppin the Cuse, he's got lots of Best Actor buzz and I can't wait to see this one.

[Kingdom]

He's Nixon because he played Nixon on the the play. Michael Sheen was also Frost in the play.

[NYgiantsfan5689]

It's as close as we can hope for, I guess. I dunno, something doesn't look right.

You're not gonna get it perfect with actors. Personally, if they got it almost perfect, it would take something out of it. The difference gives the actor the ability to add his own little spark to the role instead of just being someone else. That's good. Yes you're supposed to be playing someone else, and 99% of acting should be trying to be as accurate as possible. But it shouldn't be 100%. There should be that .5-1% that is the actor's touch. That's the beauty of acting. And the difference in looks adds to that

[love_that_reefer]

It's as close as we can hope for, I guess. I dunno, something doesn't look right.

They got the bags under his eyes alright. Its better than Anthony Hopkins playing Nixon I'm sure.