Box office report for Dec. 28, 2009: Christmas weekend breaks records
Hollywood celebrated a very merry Christmas, with the estimated $278 million in box-office revenue over the weekend breaking the previous record of roughly $253 million set in July 2008, the weekend “The Dark Knight” was released.
According to the Associated Press, a diverse group of films drew big crowds to theaters over the weekend: James Cameron’s high-tech sci-fi “Avatar” notched a mighty second week take, while “Sherlock Holmes,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” and “It’s Complicated” all opened strongly
For the second straight weekend, “Avatar” top the box office, earning $75 million for 20th Century Fox, according to the AP. The movie saw only a 3 percent drop from its opening weekend total of $77.4 million; blockbusters usually drop 30 to 50 percent in their second weekend.
In its 10 days of release, “Avatar” has made $212 million domestically – and could be on its way to a worldwide gross of more than $1 billion, according to the AP.
“Sherlock Holmes,” Guy Ritchie’s (“Snatch”) action-packed reboot starring Robert Downey Jr. as Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective, came in second place. The Warner Bros. film opened with a weekend total of $65.4 million, including a record Christmas Day debut of $24.9 million.
The film is perfectly set up for a sequel, and with those numbers, it seems sure to earn a few follow-ups.
“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” which opened Wednesday, took in $50.2 million on the weekend and $77.1 million in its five days of release. The sequel, also from Fox, earned $18.8 million on Wednesday alone. The “Squeakquel” likely will surpass the box-office take for the 2007 first film, which made $217 million.
Writer-director Nancy Meyers’ (“Something’s Gotta Give”) ”It’s Complicated,” a romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, debuted at No. 4 with a solid $22.1 million. The audience for the Universal film was 72 percent female, according to the AP.
Two films with Oscar aspirations also opened wide over the weekend: Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” (Paramount) and Rob Marshall’s “Nine” (Weinstein Co.). “Up in the Air,” which has some of the best awards momentum, grossed $11.8 million, bringing its cumulative total to $24.5 million. The movie landed in fifth place for the weekend and already has nearly earned back its production budget.
The bright Christmas weekend results indicate many happy returns for all the films in release this week – one of the most lucrative of the year. Students of all ages are out of school, Christmas with its requisite shopping and activities is past, and a wide array of movies are out to keep people occupied before and after their New Year’s Eve parties.
2009 isn’t quite over, but the year has already set a record for domestic ticket sales with more than $10 billion at the box office. That surpassed the $9.7 billion mark of 2007.
“”It’s an absolutely fitting end to the biggest box office year of all time,” Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com, told the AP. “It’s just been a total roller coaster ride. It’s like audience members are on board.”
While some of the credit must go the recession (movies historically do well in hard times when a trip to the movie theater is a relatively cheap form of entertainment and escapism), there was a feeling Sunday that Hollywood had put forth a better product this Christmas, according to the AP.
“People say it’s the recession,” said Dergarabedian. “It’s the movies – it’s really the movies. It seems like when people aren’t at home, they’re at the movies.”
Christmas weekend also offered films for a variety of demographics: science-fiction, rom-com, family fare, action-packed thriller and serious awards-contender.
“That’s what fueled this Christmas, the diversity of the films,” Dergarabedian told the AP. “It was like a cinematic buffet line. If you can’t find a movie that you like in the marketplace right now, you don’t like movies.”
Here are the weekend’s top 10 movies, from the AP:
1. “Avatar,” $75 million.
2. “Sherlock Holmes,” $65.4 million.
3. “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” $50.2 million.
4. “It’s Complicated,” $22.1 million.
5. “Up in the Air,” $11.8 million.
6. “The Blind Side,” $11.7 million.
7. “The Princess and the Frog,” $8.7 million.
8. “Nine,” $5.5 million.
9. “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” $5 million.
10. “Invictus,” $4.4 million.
-BAM
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