Kristen Stewart in The Twilight Saga: New Moon (top); Rain in Ninja Assassin (middle); John Travolta, Robin Williams in Old Dogs (bottom)
Chris Weitz’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon prevailed at the North American box office for the second consecutive weekend, with a solid $42.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Starring Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner, the sequel to Twilight scored a superb average of $10,515 per theater at 4,042 locations, lifting its domestic total to an incredible $230.6 million after a little more than one week in release.
Following closely in second place was Sandra Bullock’s surprisingly successful drama The Blind Side, which bagged another $40.1 million for a cumulative gross of $100.2 million. The Blind Side scored an average of $12,779 per theater at 3,140 locations.
This week’s new releases didn’t perform that well.
Disney’s comedy Old Dogs, with Robin Williams and John Travolta, finished at No. 4 with $16.8 million, lifting its early total to $24 million, while Warner’s action flick Ninja Assassin opened in sixth place, generating $13.1 million for a domestic total of $21 million. Both films opened in theaters Wednesday.
Also entering the top 10 was Wes Anderson’s new release Fantastic Mr. Fox, which earned $7 million for an early total haul of $10.1 million. George Clooney voices the lead character in the stop-motion adventure about a clever fox’s plans to invade three farms. Meryl Streep and Bill Murray provide the voices of a couple more characters.
Meanwhile, Roland Emmerich’s apocalyptic 2012, starring John Cusack, picked up another $18 million at No. 3, bringing its cumulative gross to $138.7 million after a solid three-week run.
At No. 5, Disney’s 3D motion-capture version of A Christmas Carol, featuring Jim Carrey, took home $16 million, reaching a total of $105.3 million. Sony’s animated Planet 51 slipped to seventh place, lifting its total to $28.4 million after weekend earnings of $10.2 million.
Lee Daniels’ sleeper hit Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, which has just earned Mo'Nique a best actress award at the Stockholm Film Festival, dropped to No. 8 this weekend, scoring a remarkable $7 million from ticket sales at only 663 locations. The film’s total currently stands at 32.4 million.
At No. 10, Grant Heslov's The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges, pulled in $1.5 million for a cume of $30.5 million.
Also opening in limited release this weekend was John Hillcoat’s The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen in a post-apocalyptic world. The film finished eleventh with a weekend gross of $1.5 million.
Source: Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)