Box: Office - Ghostly Christmas

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?

Whether You've Been Naughty... Or Nice...

Happy Holidays from The Film Experience! Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year... whatever you're celebrating.

But most of all... Happy Moviegoing.

Blogging will resume on Monday morning. Coming next week: Interviews with Corey Stoll, Charlize Theron and Jessica Chastain. Plus: more on War Horse, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Iron Lady, and The Artist. And Nathaniel's Top Ten List and the Film Bitch Awards Kick Off.

You'll stick around, right?

Stocking Stuffers From the Movies

One person's treasure is another one's junk so for my bi-weekly column at Fandor, I'm looking at what's naughty and what's nice about a few top Oscar categories... like Best Actress, Original Screenplay and more.

In the meantime, since I may have the lowest key Christmas ever known chez moi, I've been thinking a lot about my favorite part of secular holiday rituals and it's totally stocking suffers. So herewith a list! Tis the season of list-making.

BEST STOCKING STUFFERS FROM 2011 MOVIES

Mr Timms photo via Cinema Blend

• Mr. Timms from Rango.

• A fedora from The Adjustment Bureau. Better than any transit card for getting through a city quickly.

• Those neato contact lenses in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol which make perfect replica printouts of what you're looking at if you blink twice.

• A gift certificate for a one day shopping / grooming makeover with Crazy Stupid Love's Ryan Gosling.

• Gloves with which to Drive without leaving fingerprints behind.

Pick a toy, any toy

• A toy from Papa Georges' shop in Hugo, any toy.

• A stogie from Sigmund Freud's personal collection in A Dangerous Method or maybe Albert Nobbs's dream shop.

• A baseball signed by Brad Pitt. It's hard not to get romantic about baseball... or Brad.

• Must Have: a miniature picture book of Mike Mills illustrations from Beginners. He drew them himself though Ewan helped a little at the end.

• That "Naughty or Nice" meter from Arthur Christmas with which to judge future friends, lovers, clients, or business partners. 

• Hal Jordan's power ring.

• Pearl necklace from Consolata Boyle's costume department from The Iron Lady. 'Absoloooootely non-negotiable!'

• A movie makeup kit from Super 8.

• A pair of boat shoes to go jogging with George Clooney in.

• The vial containing a mermaid's tear from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

• A Hello Kitty t-shirt signed by Charlize Theron.

• Thor's hammer. Though maybe that wouldn't fit in a sock?

Which stocking stuffers are you hoping for Sunday morning?

Music, Mistletoe and Michael Caine: 'The Muppet Christmas Carol'

Kurt here. If you love Christmas, odds are there's an incarnation of A Christmas Carol of which you take ownership. For me, it's a stage production performed annually at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ. For you, it might be the 1938 Joseph L. Mankiewicz classic with Reginald Owen. And for a special few, it's The Muppet Christmas Carol, a film that proves how effectively one beloved property can be used to refresh another. The worlds of Jim Henson and Charles Dickens intertwine rather beautifully in this 1992 musical dramedy, whose Muppet stars pull the Yuletide tale out of mothballs, but don't crank up the contemporary jabber so far as to brand it with a born-on date. The comedy is all about that distinct Muppet attitude, which, as the new Muppets film seems determined to emphasize, is as timeless as "Bah Humbug."

Charles Dickens is in fact a character in the film. He's played by Gonzo, who, along with Rizzo the Rat, narrates the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge (a game, sincere Michael Caine) and the spectral Christmas Eve that rids him of his jerkdom. You might think excessive hand-holding would result from having a pair of narrators guide you through a film that already sees its lead and his visitors guide you through second-act flashbacks, but that's never the case here, as Gonzo proves an entertainingly knowing voice and a funny teacher to Rizzo, who's ever-eager to listen and learn ("Why are you whispering?" Rizzo asks. "It's for dramatic emphasis," Gonzo tells him). It's a gentle form of un-dusty, all-ages comedy, and it's a far better rejuvenator than, say, a 3D shrunken-man rollercoaster. 

The narrating duo also add to a team element that seems to unfailingly manifest when it comes to the Muppets. Of course, the characters are their own traveling troupe (a factor that undoubtedly helps attract flesh-and-blood actors to work with them), but there are subsets of teams that appear within projects, and help to give the comedy that ultra-important communal feel. Jacob Marley, for instance, is given a brother, Robert (wink-wink), so the pair can be portrayed by the hysterical hecklers Statler and Waldorf, who may just offer the most enjoyable books-and-chains preliminary haunt the story has ever seen ("There's more of gravy than of grave about you," Scrooge says to the pair in his blame-it-on-the-food speech. "More of gravy than of grave?" they reply. "What a terrible pun! Where do you get these jokes?"). There's also Bob Cratchit's (Kermit the Frog) shivering team of bookkeeping colleagues, who famously initiate an impromptu Hawaiian dance when their request for more furnace coal is met with the threat of unemployment.  

Watching the film again, I was struck by just how many musical sequences it includes, and they're fine ones at that. The movie begins with the familiar marketplace bustle, through which Scrooge hurries home amid a whole town of scared and scorned onlookers. "There goes Mr. Humbug," they chant, "there goes Mr. Grim. If they gave a prize for being mean, the winner would be him." Even the Muppet-ized vegetables join in on the chorus, shaming the village grump. Later, the central cast members unite for "Thankful Heart," an ending tune that, like the others, was penned by Paul Williams (the score is credited to Miles Goodman). Off hand, I can't recall another Christmas Carol that presents itself as a musical, apart from the usual festivities at the house of Fezziwig (who, here, naturally, goes by "Fozziwig"). The story works great with the songs sprinkled in, and the music has an effect similar to the Muppet comedy: updated, but un-dated.  

What probably nets the biggest laughs is the recurring tendency of Gonzo and Rizzo to get physically involved with the story they're telling, be it by falling off an in-flashback shelf they describe as "old and decayed," or receiving a self-reflexive Christmas greeting from Scrooge himself. Gonzo, in particular, has fun with the different levels of fiction, playing an imaginary version of an author poking around in his own creation. "Great story, Mr. Dickens," Rizzo says at film's end. "You should read the book," says Gonzo.  

Box Office: No Turkeys at the Box Office, Unless You Count Gonzo.

...but he's less a bird than bird-like. It was a genuinely happy Thanksgiving chez moi (so much fun and good food) and I hope it was for you, too. Did you hit the movie theater? Most of the newbies and the holdovers did solid business despite abundant competition.

Kings and Queens of the Thanksgiving box office

Box Office (U.S.) Baker's Dozen -Estimates

01 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 $42 (cum $221.3)
02 THE MUPPETS new $29.5 (cum $42)
03 HAPPY FEET TWO $13.4 (cum. $43.7)
04 ARTHUR CHRISTMAS new $17
05 HUGO new $11.3 [Scorsese & Team] (cum $15.3)
06 JACK AND JILL $10.3 (cum. $57.4) 
07 THE IMMORTALS $8.8 (cum. $68.6) 
08 PUSS IN BOOTS $7.4 (cum. $135.3)
09 TOWER HEIST $7.3 (cum. $65.3)
10 THE DESCENDANTS $7.2 [Michael's review] (cum. $10.7)
11 J EDGAR  $4.9 [Nathaniel's review] (cum $28.8)
12 MY WEEK WITH MARILYN new $1.7 [Nathaniel's review] (cum. $2.0)
13 A VERY HAROLD AND KUMAR CHRISTMAS $1.6 (cum. $31.6)

Talking Points
• The Artist (review) and A Dangerous Method (review) both opened in very limited release on the coasts to strong per theater response, each earning almost a quarter of a million in their first weekend. Both are undoubtedly hoping for year end kudos to boost interest as they expand. The Artist in particular will be an interesting case because  

• Martha Marcy May Marlene (review) and The Skin I Live In, two of the year's most provocative films, acquitted themselves well but are sadly already fading after $2 ½ million.. so they didn't quite cross over in a larger way.

•  Arthur Christmas suffered the most from the glut of family film programming but it didn't have the name brand of Scorsese or The Muppets to push it through. Next weekend should tell us more about how it will fare word-of-mouth wise.