The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.
In one of the most astounding weekends since the summer, two movies opened and far exceeded all expectations, predictions and studio tracking as Will Smith opened his latest sci-fi action flick I Am Legend (Warner Bros.) in December with the type of opening weekend that's genearlly only seen during the summer months. With an estimated opening of $76.5 million in regular and IMAX theatres, an average of over $21,000 per theater, Legend has set a new opening record for Smith as well as the new record for December, surpassing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the finale to the popular fantasy trilogy which previously held the record with $72.6 million.
Even more surprising might be the success of Alvin and the Chipmunks (Fox) in finding a huge family audience to the tune of $45 million, more than DreamWorks' highly-publicized Bee Movie last month, but produced for just $60 million rather than the $150 million spent on the Seinfeld comedy. Alvin averaged nearly $13,000 per theatre over the weekend, becoming one of the top 8 openers for the month of December, and it should continue to do well over the busy holiday week to come.
With the entrance into the market with two strong movies, the fantasy epic The Golden Compass (New Line) crashed in its second weekend, dropping 65% to $9 million, bringing its total to $41 million, a far cry from its production budget of $180 million.
Disney's holiday hit Enchanted, starring recent Golden Globe nom Amy Adams, ended its first month with $92.3 million, adding another $6 million over the weekend while dropping down to fourth place.
Holding up well in its second month in theatres thanks to a slew of critics' awards and other nominations, the Coen Brothers' comeback No Country for Old Men (Miramax) moved up one notch to fifth place with another $3 million to bring its total to $33.6 million.
Opening at #6, the Christmas comedy The Perfect Holiday (Yari Group) didn't stand a chance against the chipmunks, grossing just under $3 million on the weekend after making $600,000 on Wednesday and Thursday. Both of the other holiday movies, Fred Claus and This Christmas were also hit significantly by the new movies, both dropping over 50% to make $2.3 million in the pre-holiday weekend.
So many movies dropping off allowed two movies in limited release to make headway into the Top 12 as the Golden Globe nominated Atonement (Focus) and Juno (Fox Searchlight) each moved up, Atonement ending up at #8 with $1.8 million in 111 theatres and Juno at #11 with $1.4 million in just 40 theatres.
Opening in 35 theaters in select cities, the film based on Khaled Hosseini's bestselling novel The Kite Runner (Paramount Vantage) brought in $451 thousand with a moderate per-theatre average of $12.8 thousand. It fared better than Francis Ford Coppola's first movie in ten years, as Youth Without Youth (Sony Classics) grossed just $27.8 thousand in 6 theatres in New York and L.A.
For the first time since Thanksgiving, the box office saw a significant increase thanks to the $120 million made by the two new movies, which exceeded the $105 million grossed by the Top 10 in the same weekend last year when Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness topped Eragon and Charlotte's Web. This year's top 10 grossed an estimated $150 million, a good sign for a strong holiday at the box office.
