'Day The Earth Stood Still #1 But Twilight Bigger Number

[comedyfreak]

Twilight hit a milestone. Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep rocked the (art) house. And, oh, yes, The Day the Earth Stood Still opened No. 1.

The Keanu Reeves-led sci-fi remake debuted with a weekend-best $31 million, per box office estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations, but barely lived up to modest expectations.

"It's really one of those in-betweeners," Box Office Mojo's Brandon Gray said today. "Not really a success, but not really a failure, either."

Other films had more clear-cut wins:

• In its fourth weekend, Twilight ($8 million) hit the $150 million mark overall. • In its third weekend, Four Christmases ($13.3 million) saw ticket sales drop by a remarkably slim margin from last weekend—only 21 percent. • Eastwood's Gran Torino ($284,000), starring, directed by and scored by the 78-year-old wunderkind, ruled all Oscar contenders (and all films) in limited release, averaging $47,333 at each of its six theaters. (The Day the Earth Stood Still averaged a so-so $8,708.)

• Another debuting Oscar hopeful, Doubt ($525,000) starring Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, averaged $35,002 at each of its 15 theaters. • Fellow Best Picture contender Frost/Nixon ($630,240) moved up to 39 theaters, and saw business jump 249 percent from last weekend.

Looking at more of the weekend results:

• On one hand, The Day the Earth Stood Still was Hollywood's lowest-grossing No. 1 debut since Max Payne.

• On the other hand, the movie only cost its studio $80 million, a pittance for an alien-invasion blowout. • Last year at this time, Hollywood didn't need "on the other hand" scenarios. It needed a truck to scoop up all the money made by I Am Legend, which debuted with $77.2 million, and Alvin and the Chipmunks, which opened with $44.3 million. • Milk ($2.6 million) was the highest-grossing Oscar hopeful—if you don't count Bolt ($7.5 million) and its possible Best Original Song nominee, Miley Cyrus.

• Fresh off the Golden Globe nominations, Slumdog Milionaire ($2.2 million) added 91 theaters, and just missed making the Top 10.

• Michelle Williams' economic-downer drama Wendy and Lucy ($18,000) averaged $9,000 from its two screens. • Golden Globe Best Drama nominee The Reader ($170,000) rated $21,250 off each of its eight screens. • Steven Soderbergh's Che, the first of the filmmaker's two-part biopic about the revolutionary, hasn't done much in the pre-Oscar races, but it performed like a champ in its debut, pulling in $55,000 in two theaters, for a $27,500 per-screen average

Weekend Box Office Estimates (U.S.)
This Wk Last Wk Title Dist. Weekend Gross Cumulative
Gross Rlse
Wks # of
Theaters
2 1 Four Christmases New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution $13,270,000 $87,972,000 3 3540
3 2 Twilight Summit Entertainment, LLC, Paramount Pictures $8,013,000 $150,108,000 4 3649
4 3 Bolt Buena Vista Pictures Distribution $7,506,000 $88,891,000 4 3133
5 4 Australia 20th Century Fox Distribution $4,285,000 $37,883,000 3 2703
6 5 Quantum Of Solace Sony Pictures Releasing $3,800,000 $157,668,000 5 2635
7 - Nothing Like the Holidays Overture Films $3,500,000 $3,500,000 1 1671
8 6 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures $3,250,000 $170,006,000 6 2768
9 11 Milk Focus Features $2,636,000 $7,630,000 3 328
10 7 Transporter 3 Lionsgate $2,250,000 $29,276,000 3 2541
11 12 Slumdog Millionaire Fox Searchlight Pictures $2,200,000 $8,073,000 5 169
12 9 Cadillac Records Sony Pictures Releasing $1,600,000 $5,924,000 2 688

[Zoneboy]