Box office

This weekend, we had a few movies open up on Christmas Day, but mostly everything stayed the same, thus giving me a small respite on my template. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates, the actuals will be available on Monday. Just to prove me wrong).

1. National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (BV)- $35.6, 3832 screens, week 2, $124.0 total
2. Alvin and the Chipmunks (Fox) - $30.0, 3484 screens, week 3, $142.3 total
3. I Am Legend (WB) - $27.5, 3636 screens, week 3, $194.5 total
4. Charlie WIlson's War (Uni) - $11.7, 2575 screens, week 2, $34.5 total
5. Juno (FoxS) - $10.3, 998 screens, week 4, $25.6 total
6. Alien Vs. Predator - Requiem (Fox)- $10.0, 2611 screens, week 1, $26.8 total (xmas open)
7. The Waterhorse (Sony) - $9.2, 2772 screens, week 1, $16.8 total (xmas open)
8. P.S. I Love You (WB) - $9.1, 2464 screens, week 2, $23.3 total
9. Sweeney Todd (Par/DW) - $8.0, 1249 screens, week 2, $26.7 total
10. Enchanted (BV) - $6.5, 2262 screens, week 6, $110.6 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, you can pretty much see for yourself that the top leaders made some coin, and the rest faltered. But let's take a moment and see how ridiculously successful Alvin and The Chipmunks turned out to be. Seriously, people, what's going on with that?

The movie where the Alien versed the Predator didn't fare too well, and nowhere near as well as the previous effort, which had the good sense to not be released on Christmas. Let this and Grindhouse be a lesson to counter programming everywhere: Don't release these movies on holidays. You won't do well. Oh, and The Waterhorse didn't fare so well, either, although it has been garnering some spectacular reviews.

The other new release was The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington, hot off his American Gangster success. Unfortunately it only took in $6.3 million in the opening weekend. Guess if the alien were debating the predator, it would have made some more coin. Kudos to Juno for climbing up the charts and winning the hearts of many across the globe. Here's hoping Juno gets all the acclaim it deserves.

Below the radar, there were a lot of new releases, in limited runs, however. The Bucket List, a "comedy" from Rob Reiner that stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman opened on 16 screens and took in $323,000. The Orphanage, a creepy Spanish ghost story produced by Guillermo Del Toro, opened up on 19 screens and took in $230,000. But the big winner was There Will Be Blood, the latest film from Paul Thomas Anderson, opened up on only 2 screens to take $186,000, with a per screen average of $93,000. Very impressive for such a bleak film.

And in the "Because It's There" series: Before The Devil Knows You're Dead took in $128,000 on 101 screens, bringing it's grand total to $6,418,000 in 10 weeks.

There you have my break down. Next week will probably bring lower numbers to the list you see before you. Except for Alvin and The Chipmunks probably, because my reality isn't disturbing enough as it is. Until next year....