Weekend Box Office: We Need A Little “Christmas”

I think we can all agree with Scrooge that early November is no time for Christmas movies. 

And the numbers (courtesy of Variety):

1. Disney’s A Christmas Carol $31,000,000

2. Michael Jackson’s This Is It $14,000,000

3. The Men Who Stare At Goats $13,309,000

4. The Fourth Kind $12,521,285

5. Paranormal Activity $8,600,000

You know, Variety says that “A Christmas Carol,” though it won the weekend easily, actually came in on the low end of box office expectations. I actually am surprised it did $31 million. I mean, it’s the first weekend in November–is anyone really in the mood for Christmas stories? No. Sure, there are some Christmas shopping commercials and decorated store windows beginning to pop up, but most people I know sort of groan when they see them and try to ignore them. Obviously the plan for “A Christmas Carol” is to have it in theaters as long as possible leading up to the holiday, because it’s dead on December 26th, but won’t the length of possible ticket buying be shortened because a) people don’t want to see it now and b) by the time people are in the mood for Christmas, it will have been open several weeks and pushed into the background by all the other movies opening? Just my thought. I know Thanksgiving is a crowded weekend to open a movie, but I think they really should have waited until then, or at least a little closer to that date.

The others in the top five did as expected, I think. The real big surprise of the weekend was the opening of “Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” The film has been receiving critical acclaim for months as its gone around the festival circuit, but there’s been some nervousness about audiences–even those who read about what film is receiving critical acclaim on the festival circuit–might be put off by the downbeat subject matter. But “Precious” made $1.8 million from only 18 locations, resulting in a jaw-dropping 100,000 per screen. So now will word of mouth push it to even bigger numbers in the next few weeks? It’s a time of year when indie box office gets noticed, mostly for Oscar purposes, and it doesn’t hurt for a film with good reviews to also earn some money. That’s what makes Hollywood happy.