Box: Office - Ghostly Christmas
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 2:22PM 
One of my favorite traditions when I was a kid and later a visiting adult was picking the movie to watch on Christmas day with the family. It was usually me making the final decision since I was the one forcing keeping the tradition alive. My favorite of these as an adult was Titanic (1997) because even my Dad loved it and he never loves movies. This Christmas evening movie-going tradition maybe isn't as strong as it once was with American families since the weekend didn't jingle merrily with box office change.
Nevertheless, it was definitely crowded with new releases, week old releases and all of those frustratingly shy Oscar hopefuls who refuse to go wide enough for audiences to enjoy them. The weekend was won by Ghostocol which you could categorize as a big hit were it not for that super-sized budget. Whose idea was it to give it a budget that was even higher than the domestic gross of its predecessor five years ago?
Box Office Top Fifteen (Estimates)
~ over 2000 theaters
01 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL $29.5 (cum. $61.9)
02 SHERLOCK HOMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS $20.2 (cum. $79)
03 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO $12.7 (cum. $21.1)
04 ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED $12.6 (cum. $49.5)
05 THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN $9.7 (cum. $17.7)
06 WE BOUGHT A ZOO $9.4 christmas day only
07 WAR HORSE $7.5 christmas day only [STAGE VS. SCREEN]
08 NEW YEARS EVE $4.9 (cum. $34.2)
09 THE DARKEST HOUR $3 christmas day only
~ under 2000 theaters
10 THE MUPPETS $2.1 (cum. $75.7)
11 THE DESCENDANTS $2.1 (cum. $32.3)
12 ARTHUR CHRISTMAS $2.1 (cum. $43.5)
13 HUGO $2 (cum. $43.6)
14 THE SITTER $1.8 (cum. $22.3)
15 YOUNG ADULT $1.7 (cum. $7.1)
Talking Points
Pina, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy had the best per screen averages. I was at a Christmas party yesterday and the latter was definitely a movie people were talking about. The conversation frequently swerved to Benedict Cumberbatch (People knew him as the other new Sherlock Holmes -- the not Robert Downey Jr Holmes) and there were at least a couple of "I didn't understand what was going on!"s uttered. But the point is that people are interested in it. They should've opened wider.
You could finally give the gift of Marilyn. But did the wide release come two weeks too late?Same goes for My Week With Marilyn. It doubled its screen count, finally going wide this weekend for the holiday, but the widening came too late. The movie's moment, if you will, was definitely back around Thanksgiving time when competition was slightly less severe and it had that new girl sparkle in a weekend that was otherwise all about the little kiddies. Now it's competing with other adult appeal movies and it's not entirely fresh news in our fast-paced pop culture. The big expansion five weeks later saw dwindling revenues and it landed on the worst opening weekend chart. Did they not think Marilyn was a brand? Movies are obsessed with selling us the familiar and there's no way that MARILYN didn't have enough branding to open wider earlier. It isn't a French film without dialogue with no stars, after all.
Did you hit the theater and does your family always do this on Christmas?
Reader Comments (11)
A typical Jewish Christmas is Chinese food & a movie, however, the brand new IHOP next to the theater was open, so I had Chinese today instead.
Yesterday we saw The Artist, which was delightful.
I got to the movies this morning/afternoon. I saw The Artist and Young Adult. Young Adult might be at the top of my Best Of lists in multiple categories. The screenplay is extraordinary, Theron is at the top of her game, Oswalt is a perfect foil for her, and Colette Wolfe's big scene is enough to make my Supporting Actress line-up. The Artist is cute and very well-directed. Can you tell which film just left me whelmed?
Robert G - I saw both of those films X-Mas day and had a (nearly) opposite reaction. I was pleasantly surprised by The Artist, which - while predictable in places -was pretty endearing from beginning to end (Definitely going in my Top Ten of 2011). As for Young Adult, Charlize Theron's performance is very strong and I liked Oswalt as well but I felt like I had seen this type of movie done before.
Anyway, I saw Hugo in 3D on X-Mas Eve and also enjoyed it a lot. However, it did tend to drag in places and was a little to obvious at times.
Daniel, I liked The Artist. It's cute and sweet and very well-directed. However, my reaction to Young Adult was a lot stronger for a number of reasons. Diablo Cody really hit on the id of a frustrated writer. I could see different parts of myself when I'm losing my mind over a bad gig in different characters. It's almost like the entire town is a separation of Mavis's full personality with each character acting a siphon for a different kind of emotion. She's projecting until that safety net starts to give and she begins to see herself. I'm also big on structure and Cody's strength is knowing how to put together a film.
We do that in my family as well... my dad and his "girls" (we're 3 daughters) head out after a massive Christmas lunch (Spanish schedule, so lunch at 3) to go digest in front of a big screen. We wanted Sherlock Holmes this year, but we-re not getting it for another 2 weeks (ditto many of the Oscar hopefuls), so we chose the light-hearted New Year's Eve, was much better than I thought! :)
saw The Feel! Bad! Movie! Of! Christmas! (aka ‘DRAGON TATTOO)--still love that copy btw
Liked it at lot more than I expected and, amongst other things, was nice to see Fincher isn’t weary of explicit, medium-wide-shot friendly sex (the one between Craig and Mara was a scorcher). how the hell this ever escaped an NC-17 is beyond me...
GHOST PROTOCOL achieved the rare feat of being the fourth and best installment in a franchise. And with a killer sound design to boot
We're actually a New Year's Day moviegoing family. This year we're seeing Sherlock Holmes 2, but only because I couldn't convince my dad to see The Artist. It's very frustrating because I know he's not going to like SH2 anyway.
I saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and besides a captivating performance by Rooney Mara, I thought the film was severely overrated. Not bad, but definitely Fincher's least appealing, in my opinion. I never read the books or saw the original film but I though the material was not compelling in the least--very stale and dull and the film could not solely survive on Mara's performance. I could see a best actress nomination for her but surely not for picture, directing, or screenplay. I will probably see War Horse tomorrow and hopefully The Artist and The Adventures of Tintin later in the week.
I am surprised War Horse did so well. (Non-animated) Spielberg is definitely a more powerful brand than I thought.
My brother and I went to see The Artist in Christmas day at a Multiplex. The teather was small but crowded. There were parents with kids and I thought it was stupid to bring kids to such a film. I couldn't be more wrong. Everybody was quiet as soon as the movie began. You couldn't hear a fly, or rather you COULD hear a fly, such was the silence. The audience was raptured by the images and (SPOLIER) when certain noises appeared (end of SPOLIER ) people gasped in awe. A father brought his kid to the bathroom but rushed back to the room running like devils so they wouldn't miss a frame.
I smiled and laughed, marvelled at the brilliance filmaking and cried profusely at the end. In short a wonderful Christmas day at the movies.
We were a little constrained by time on Christmas Eve, so we ended up having to choose between Dragon Tattoo and Sherlock Holmes. We chose the latter, and it was fine, if curiously not as much fun as the first. The only thing that saved it was the incredible chemistry between Downey and Law. Queerest Holmes & Watson ever, and I love it! Also, Stephen Fry is HILARIOUS, and pity Noomi Rapace, who was given nothing at all to do.
The grandparents got to pick the movie on Christmas Day, so we went to see War Horse. I've already posted my thoughts, but in summation, I thought it was the Best Picture of 1948. My mother is writing a letter to Spielberg and Touchstone yelling at them for not crediting the horse(s).
Yesterday, I insisted on seeing The Artist, since it was finally showing in the local art house. The tiny theater was pretty close to full, and you could feel how much everyone enjoyed it. I loved it. Had a big smile on my face from the first frame until long after I left the theater. Most enjoyable film of the year (except for the SPOILER scene where he burns the film, which made me wonder about how many silent masterpieces we might have lost due to just that situation END SPOILER). I got a little annoyed at the end, as Bejo and Dujardin are no Astaire and Rogers, but they are so charming that they totally won me over.