BOX OFFICE BEAT DOWN: 2012 Destroys the Weekend with $65 Million!

Weekend Box Office

1) 2012 - $65 million
2) Disney's a Christmas Carol - $22.3 million
3) The Men Who Stare at Goats - $6.2 million
4) Precious - $6.09 million
5) Michael Jackson's This Is It - $5.1 million
6) The Fourth Kind - $4.7 million
7) Couples Retreat - $4.25 million
8) Paranormal Activity - $4.2 million
9) Law Abiding Citizen - $3.9 million
10) The Box- $3.1 million

The latest Roland Emerich disaster flick, 2012, destroyed everything in it's way this weekend to earn the number one spot in the box office making an estimated $65 million. The film about the end of the world, which had a reported budget of somewhere around $260 million, was released on a little over 3,000 screens and made an estimated $19,095 per screen. Last week's number one film, Disney's a Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey as Scrooge fell 25.7% only making $22.3 million in it's second week. The movie, which was released on around 3,404 screens, earned only $6,062 per screen.

The Men Who Stare at Goats starring Oscar Winners George Clooney and Kevin Spacey along with Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges seems to have staying power with audiences as it reclaims it's number three spot on the chart for the second week in a row. The film, which was released on 2,453 screens earned about $2,528 per screen totaling over $6 million in the box office bringing its total gross upwards of $23 million just shy of it's $25 million budget. In the forth position this week is Precious a film based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire. The film, which was produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry got a wider release this week and made an impressive $35,000 per screen in only 174 theaters earning a total of $6.09 million, which brings it's total gross up to $8.9 million, just short of it's modest $10 million budget. Rounding off the top five this week is the King of Pop's opus Michael Jackson's This Is It, which continued to fall in it's third week. The documentary, which was seen on over 3,000 screens made $1,679 per screen bringing it's total gross to around $68.2 million.

The rest of this week's new films were all in limited release. Wes Anderson's animated version of author Roald Dahl's celebrated children's book The Fantastic Mr. Fox starring George Clooney and Meryl Streep made a very impressive $65,000 in only four theaters making a total of $260,000 in it's debut week. The Messenger starring Ben Foster and Woody Harelson as US soldiers with the worst duty imaginable was released in a timely manner, just a few days after Veteran's Day and made $12,500 in only four theaters earning a total of $50,000 over the weekend. The teen-threesome movie Dare starring Emmy Rossum earned $12,000 which was impressive considering it was only in two theaters making $6,000 per screen in it's first week. Finally, the British '60s pop-music film Pirate Radio starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and directed by Richard Curtis made a somewhat disappointing $2.8 million in it's first week as it was shown on over 800 screens and only made around $3,250 per screen.

Next weekend will see three new films enter into wide release. The biggest film of the week by far is the release of highly anticipated teen-vampire phenomenon The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the follow up to the ridiculously successful 2008 film Twilight. Also next week, is the release of the reverse-alien-invasion animated movie Planet 51 and the Sandra Bullock starring, true-life, inspirational football story The Blind Side. Opening in limited release next week is Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans a "not-a-remake" of the 1992 Harvey Keitel film Bad Lieutenant, this time starring Nicolas Cage as the dirty cop. Also in limited release is Broken Embraces, which marks the forth re-teaming of celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and Oscar winning actress Penelope Cruz, and the John Woo directed Chinese epic film Red Cliff. Check back in seven days to see who comes out on top at the box office next week.