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An alien version of Keanu Reeves (which is different from the normal version how, exactly?) overcame a world of bad reviews in The Day the Earth Stood Still, which rocketed to the top of the weekend box office with $31 million, knocking Four Christmases out of its two-week reign. Christmases managed to stay in second, though, taking in another $13.3 million.
Four Christmases somehow managed to stay at the top of the box office for a second week in a row, while Twilight actually moved up the chart, from number three last week to number two. How ever did that happen? Oh, right, virtually nothing opened this weekend in wide release except for a comic book sequel with a very limited fanbase, Punisher: War Zone (which made only $4 million to come in eighth).
A holiday-themed movie made the most of the long holiday weekend, as Four Christmases easily unseated Twilight for the top spot at the weekend box office. In fact, even Bolt edged in, leaving Twilight in third for the weekend.
Whether you'll be sitting down to a turkey dinner or a Tofurkey lunch this Thanksgiving, we invite you to reflect upon the following ten movies from 2008. They weren't necessarily the lowest-grossing pictures of the year, but they failed to live up to financial expecations, in a big way. These suckers plummeted to the earth, flightless and doomed, like those poor gobblers dropped from a helicopter in that famous episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. It's not hard to imagine some of the investors saying, much like dazed radio station manager Arthur Carlson, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." But they couldn't, and they can't, so they've landed here with a resounding thud.
I know this will come as a huge shock to anyone who has been living under a rock for the past several months of Twilight mania, but I'll just spill it: The movie, based on a series of books for teens, did phenomenally well at the box office. Starting with sold-out midnight screenings on Thursday, it went on to make $70.6 million in its opening weekend, joining an elite group of films to become profitable in a matter of days, a boon for small film company Summit Entertainment, which made the movie on a relative dime ($37 million to make the movie, another $30 million in marketing). And it jumped ahead of last week's box office winner Quantum of Solace for the fourth-highest opening weekend this year.
So, on a whim I decided to have lunch at celebrity hotspot the Ivy yesterday. That's right, I just hopped in my private jet and flew three hours for an overpriced salad. And it's a good thing I did, too, because I'm able to bring you a conversation I overheard between the canine star of Bolt and what I gathered was his agent. Seems the pooch is worried about being able to pull in big box office numbers for his bosses at Disney, and why wouldn't he be? He faces some stiff competition.
"The good ole Moviefile," you think to yourself. "They won't report on something Twilight-related two days in a row. Because I can't get away from Twilight news in the media or on my walk to class or at the bottom of the ocean -- the Moviefile will save me!" Oh contraire, Écouter. We can't bring you any more non-Twilight news, because frankly, there isn't any. I checked. I mean, there isn't much to say beyond Ben Affleck is touring refugee camps in the Congo, (for like, awareness of the plight of the people of the Congo, not for fun or anything) and Winona Ryder was briefly hospitalized in the UK for an unknown condition after she became ill on a flight from LA to London. She was probably freaking out because there was nothing to steal but, literally, peanuts. That's all I've got, people! It's that and sparkle-in-the-sun vampires! I tried. I did. To the Twilight!
To no one's surprise, James Bond dominated the box office, raking in $70.4 million for Quantum of Solace in its opening weekend. That's a record for a Bond film opening weekend, beating the previous top opener, Die Another Day, which brought in $47 million in its first weekend back in 2002. (Even when adjusted for ticket price inflation, Die Another Day would have a $57 million take, still lower than Quantum.) That's also the fourth-highest opening weekend of the year, after The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Iron Man.
November 4 has come and gone, but the voting isn't over yet. Voting for the People's Choice Awards started yesterday and continues through December 7. You don't get many choices, though. Looking at the just-announced list of nominees, you might think only a handful of movies came out in 2008. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and the new Indiana Jones will vie for top honors in both the favorite movie and favorite action movie categories. It's not surprising that in an award system based on popular opinion the highest grossing films would rise to the top of the list. Statistically speaking, chances are pretty good that even if you only saw three movies this year, those were the three you saw. Other not-unexpected movie nominees include Wall-E, Sex and the City, and Mamma Mia!
In a battle that had all comers bearing their claws, it was the pack of citified zoo animals in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa that managed to come out on top. The DreamWorks sequel raked in a whopping $63.1 million on 4,056 screens, which just slightly edges out this summer's Wall-E for the biggest opening weekend for an animated feature this year. That haul is also more than three times the moolah brought in by the second-place Role Models, which, despite ads featuring funny kids sass-mouthing Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd, is an R-rated movie not for the kiddies. The only other new release in the top ten was Soul Men, which landed in sixth place with a tally of $5.4 million on 2,044 screens.
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