The first big holiday film of the season arrived this weekend to the tune of $30 million. The Jim Carrey Robert Zemeckis collaboration about the classic Charles Dicken’s tale took top honors at the weekend box office. The 3D animated movie made $30 million Friday – Sunday which was a solid debut, however it was below industry expectations. With the added cost of IMAX tickets and digital 3D features, this film had an advantage to rake in more cash. The one bright spot for this film is that it’s early November release will mean a long run through the holiday season. The IMAX version will be in theaters through the 17th of December when Avatar takes over on the 18th. For a full breakdown of the November 6th-8th box office read on!

Three years ago director Robert Zemeckis dove into the computer animated 3D world that was The Polar Express. He followed that with 2007′s Beowulf which featured the same animation technology. A Christmas Carol once again returns the Forrest Gump director to this style of film making. In this film Jim Carrey plays multiple roles including that of Ebeneezer Scrooge. With positive reviews for A Christmas Carol, Jim Carrey and Robert Zemeckis should have happy holidays ahead of them.

Dropping 43% in week two Michael Jackson’s This Is It raked in another $14 million. Sony originally had this as a limited two week engagement but the studio realized they could make more money the longer the film plays (Crazy, I know.) After two weeks MJ has made $57 million.

George Clooney’s The Men who Stare at Goats opened to a solid $13 million for the number three spot. The obscure comedy tracked well with adults who wanted another option than a 3D Christmas film this weekend.

Ironically The Fourth Kind dropped in at number four this weekend with $12.2 million. With a creepy trailer and true story premise, The Fourth Kind opened bigger than anticipated.

Rounding out the top five was Paranormal Activity which is about to cross the $100 million mark any day now. This weekend the low budget horror flick took in $8.2 million in its seventh week of release for a current total of $97 million. Let me remind you this movie only took $11,000 to make.

Next week the box office welcomes the disaster flick 2012 by Independence Day director Roland Emmerich.

Box Office numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

Adam Sandler usually opens a movie in the $30 – $40 million range, but this time around he still took the number one spot, yet with a lower opening weekend. Funny People, which stars Sandler, along with Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann was the top draw at the weekend box office bringing in $23.4 million from Friday – Sunday. That number was significantly lower than most expectations which tracked the latest Judd Apatow film around $30 – $35 million. The films darker tone and R rating surely didn’t help bring in a huge audience, and Sandler usually sees a lower opening when he takes on more serious roles. Overall the weekend box office saw a slump as summer begins to wind down and the last few films of the season hit theaters. Continue reading for a full recap of the weekend box office.

Funny People may have taken the number one spot this weekend at the box office, but it won by a narrow margin. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came in a close second with $17.7 million in week number three. The sixth film in the Harry Potter franchise has taken in a cool $250 million since its opening.

Last weeks reigning champ, the 3D kids movie G-Force, fell 46% in week number two with a gross of $17.4 million which was good enough for a third place finish.

The romantic comedy The Ugly Truth dropped 52.9% in its second week with a weekend gross of $13 million. The Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler flick has taken in a strong $52 million and counting.

The other new wide release this weekend was the kids movie Aliens in the Attic. Having no real star power, advertising, or a prayer in the world, Aliens in the Attic only mustered up $7.8 million on opening weekend.

For a full weekend box office report go check out Box Office Mojo. Next weekend summer should rebound with G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Check back with us next week as we report all the numbers for the weekend box office.

This doesn’t happen too often. For the July 4th holiday weekend two new films entered the race against Optimus Prime and Co. and who finished on top? Oddly enough it was Transformers 2 and Ice Age 3 which both grossed $42.5 million over the three day weekend. Come tomorrow morning, one movie will push the other and we will have an actual winner, but for the rest of today we can talk about this rare tie. These sequels were in a photo finish for the three day weekend but since Ice Age 3 came out on Wednesday it had a five day total of $67.5 million, whereas Transformers 2 only made $64.9 million. So in the scope of 5 days Ice Age 3 was king, but for the 3 day gross Transformers 2 was top dog.

After 10 days of release Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has grossed $293.4 million. It has now become the highest grossing film this year and is still truckin’ along. The other new release this weekend was Johnny Depp’s Public Enemies which also was released on Wednesday. The film about notorious bank robber John Dillinger made $26 million over the three day weekend and $41 million after five days of release. The film which costars Christian Bale received mixed reviews, but should hold up pretty strong because it is the only draw for adults at theaters right now.

The rest of the weekend box office looked like this:

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds continued to bring in an audience with their romantic comedy The Proposal. The film came in fourth place this weekend with another $12.8 million in the bank. It currently stands at $94.2 million and counting. In fifth place was The Hangover which made $10.4 million and after five weeks of release has made $204 million. Not too bad for a comedy without any big name stars huh?

In other box office news Pixar’s Up has now become the second highest grossing Pixar film of all time. With $264 million the animated film passed The Incredibles and is only second to Finding Nemo as Pixar’s highest money makers. It has been a huge summer so far and next week we see the arrival of Bruno and the Wednesday after that is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

After five days of release Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen became the second film in history to make $2oo million in five days. Of course, the first film being last summers The Dark Knight which made $203 million in the same amount of time. These numbers are so close that we won’t know the exact figure until tomorrow morning. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Transformers numbers dropped a little because I am sure that Paramount has embellished their numbers just a tad. They want to compete with The Dark Knight, and what better way to do so then making $200 million in five days. If you have been following our box office tracking reports we shared with you the huge opening day that Transformers 2 had with $60 million on opening day.

On Thursday the film made a strong $28 million and from Friday to Sunday it pulled in a whopping $112 million. That gave it a grand total of $201 million after five days of release. That is higher than most expectations. I don’t think most people figured it would give The Dark Kight quite a run for it’s money. The numbers for Transformers 2 are significantly higher than the original film which made $70 million its opening weekend.

We all knew this would be the film to beat this summer and it certainly looks like Transformers 2 held up to it’s hype. I am curious to see how the movie will hold up in the coming weeks. This Wednesday it will face some competition from Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Johnny Depp in Public Enemies. Revenge of the Fallen should remain strong until Harry Potter 6 drops in the middle of July.

Summer blockbuster season is now in full swing with the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The sequel to the 2007 hit film opened last night to $16 million in ticket sales for midnight showings across the country. Midnight shows were selling out at a record pace in both regular and IMAX screens. Some theaters even ran 24 hours of the film with shows at 3AM and 6AM selling out as well. So it is no surprise that we are looking at some mighty high box office returns come the end of this 5 day opening. Early reports are tracking this film in the realm of The Dark Knight and Spider man 3. Both films were huge opening week blockbusters. Last summer The Dark Knight took in $67 million in its first day of release. That is the highest grossing opening day for any film in history. Can Transformers 2 pull those same numbers? Keep reading to find out.

The Dark Knight beat all box office records when it was released last July. The film currently holds the record for opening day ($67M), opening weekend ( 3 day total of $158M), and record first five days ($203M). I don’t think Transformers 2 can make quite that much but I do believe that it will be the movie to beat this summer, and possibly this year.

Last night Transformers 2 grossed an estimated $16 million in ticket sales for midnight showings. The Dark Knight hit $18.5 million for it’s midnight run so Transformers 2 is not too far behind that gross. The Dark Knight was released on a Friday, where as Transformers 2 is a Wednesday release, so box office numbers will look a little different. I can’t see Transformers 2 beating Dark Knight’s five day tally of $203 million but it shouldn’t be too far behind.

Opening day for Transformers should be in the $50-55 million range which would put it right around the opening days of Star Wars Episode III and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. With an opening day in that range we could see a 5 day opening of around $175 million. That would put Revenge of the Fallen only second to The Dark Knight for most money in the first five days of release. For the sake of comparison, Star Wars Episode III made $172 million in five days and Pirates 2 hit $169 million in the same amount of time.

Optimus Prime and company will have a lucrative opening week. Just how lucrative will it be? Check back with us throughout the next five days as we keep you updated on Transformers 2 box office run. Until then here is our predictions:

Opening day: $55 million

Five day opening weekend: $178 million

Box Office Numbers Courtesy of Boxofficemojo

I just finished watching The Proposal and was pleasantly surprised. The film is your standard romantic comedy, but the casting of Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds is what brought in such a big audience. $34.1 million worth of an audience to be exact. The romantic comedy was the number one film this weekend marking the first hit for star Sandra Bullock in several years. The pairing of Ryan Reynolds and Bullock was most likely a draw as fans of both actors hit the movie theaters to check out their new flick. The marketing for this film was successful, as the movie’s trailer appealed to both men and women, young and old. That is an ideal demographic right there. Continue reading to check out a full box office report.

Surprisingly, The Proposal was the big draw this father’s day weekend. Although the ultimate guy movie The Hangover was a strong contender in the number two spot. This movie is holding on so strong that I am actually surprised it didn’t score a hat trick and take the number one spot for a third weekend in a row. While it did land in the number two spot, it only dropped 18% from last weekend, bringing in another $26.8 million. After three weeks in release this sleeper comedy hit has made $152.9 million. It is well on its way to the $200 million mark.

Speaking of summer comedies, Jack Black and Michael Cera couldn’t even dethrone the boys from Hangover with their new comedy Year One. This prehistoric flick managed to make $20 million opening weekend, which was pretty much expected, however still low for a movie of this caliber. It did however score more cash than Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost which is slowly slipping off the radar after it’s week $17 million debut. Year One will take a huge hit on Wednesday when it’s target audience, teenage boys, will all be watching Optimus Prime in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

With only two new releases this weekend the rest of the box office looked like this:

Pixar’s Up is still bringing in the money. In week number 4 the 3D animated film made $21.3 million which brings it to a total of $224 million and counting. As already stated, Year One took the number four spot, and the fifth spot went to the Denzel Washington, John Travolta hijack movie The Taking of Pelham 123. Pelham made $11.3 million in week number two which was a 51% decline from last week. It currently stands at an unimpressive $43 million.

The way this summer is stacking up, you either have one week to make or break it. Unless, of course, you are The Hangover and you have clearly set out to destroy the box office numbers. As far as destruction of box office numbers go, check with us this Wednesday as we will have our predictions for the 5 day opening of the mother of all summer blockbusters, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen!

Box office numbers courtesy of Boxofficemojo

For the second weekend in a row The Hangover has taken audiences on the ultimate drunken bender. The Vegas bachelor party comedy dropped only 25% in its second week of release bringing in another $33.4 million. This puts the sleeper hit of the summer at $105 million and counting. At this rate, The Hangover will be a major competitor for one of the top hits of the summer. I would expect around a $200 million finish which is surely much higher than even the most generous predictions. Close behind our trio of drunken buddies was Pixar’s animated film Up which in its third weekend out took in $30.5 million for a number two finish. Up is on the course to pass last summer’s WALL -E which ended its run with around $227 million total. Up currently stands at $187 million and is still flying high.

Two major movies were released this weekend. The first was Denzel Washington and John Travolta’s hijack thriller The Taking of Pelham 123. Pelham took the number three spot this weekend with a respectable $25 million. The R rated action flick brought in what most anticipated. The reviews for the Tony Scott directed movie were rather weak. Check out our full review of the film here. The star power of Pelham brought moviegoers to the theaters, but I doubt this film will hold on well in the coming weeks.

The other release this weekend was the Eddie Murphy kids comedy Imagine That. Murphy, as of lately, has made a career out of making bad movies that nobody watches ( I guess that is better than bad movies that everyone watches, right?) Anyways, Imagine That tanked at the box office as it only manage to make $5.7 million for a six place finish. On the bright side, that is a higher opening than Murphy’s last film, Meet Dave, which only hit $5.2 million its opening weekend last summer. I have no idea why Murphy continues to make these movies. If he hasn’t already, he really needs to fire his agent.

The rest of the weekend box office looked like this:

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian held on for a number four finish and another $9.6 million in the bank. It currently stands at $143.4 million since its release Memorial Day weekend. The number five spot went to Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost which dropped 50% in week number two only making $9.1 million. After two weeks out it has only mustered up $34.9 million (about what The Hangover made this weekend in week number two of release.)

Next weekend will see the arrival of Jack Black and Michael Cera in Year One as well as Sandra Bullock in The Proposal. Then a few days after that is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which we all know will put all these low opening numbers to shame.

Box Office numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo

For the second weekend in a row, Pixar’s latest animated adventure Up, was number one at the box office with another $44.2 million in the bank. This is the first movie this summer to be number one for more than one week. Up has now grossed $137 million in just two weeks of release. Two new high profile movies were released this weekend and only one gave Up a run for its money. The Vegas road trip comedy The Hangover nearly took the top spot this weekend making $43.2 million opening weekend. This puts The Hangover about million behind Up, and come tomorrow morning, the final numbers could put Hangover in the top spot. Continue reading to check out a full breakdown for the rest of the weekend box office.

Director Todd Phillips has brought audiences the official sleeper hit so far this summer. Most estimates put The Hangover making $25-30 million opening weekend. With a fantastic $17 million Friday opening, the hilarious comedy starring Bradley Cooper took in $43.2 million. This movie should hold up well in the coming weeks with positive reviews and little competition from upcoming films. The next comedy to hit theaters will be the Jack Black and Michael Cera comedy Year One. If I were the producers behind Year One I would be concerned seeing how Will Ferrell’s new release Land of the Lost bombed this weekend with a dismal $19 million opening. Land of the Lost did manage to make it to the number three spot but with negative reviews this movie won’t last long this summer.

The rest of the weekend box office looked like this:

Night at the Museum took in $14.6 million (#4)  this weekend bringing its total so far to $127 million in three weeks. The number five spot went to Star Trek which had continued its run at the domestic box office as the highest grossing movie this year. It made $8.4 million this weekend which brings the J.J Abrams’ reboot to a stellar $222 million in just 5 weeks of release.

Next week should be a slow weekend at the box office. Eddie Murphy brings audiences his kids flick Imagine That and Denzel Washington and John Travolta star in The Taking of Pelham 123. We may be seeing some lower profile movies the next few weeks, but on the 24th of June all that will end with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen being released.

The final numbers are here for Up and as expected the film went up, up, and away at the box office this weekend. Coming in with a strong first place finish, the tenth movie by Pixar animation studios grossed a whopping $ 68.1 million over the three day weekend. Up is third biggest opening for Pixar falling behind Finding Nemo and The Incredibles who hit the $70 million mark during their opening weekend. The adjusted price for 3D showings surely helped this movie overall, but being the best reviewed film of the year certainly didn’t hurt either. Continue reading for a full breakdown of the weekend box office results.

Pixar clearly knocked it out of the park again with their tenth film. It makes me wonder if they can do no wrong. Not only do they have the best looking animation out there, but the stories they bring to the screen rival those of any other movies out there. Last years Pixar extravaganza was WALL-E which was snubbed for the best picture nomination, however it did win best animated picture. WALL-E tapped out at $227 million which was a number that was dwarfed by The Dark Knight being released a few weeks later. Up has the market to itself until Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen arrives later this month. Look for Up’s box office numbers to stay strong in the coming weeks.

The rest of the weekend box office looked like this:

The other wide release this weekend was Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell (#4) which only managed to bring in $15.8 million. The PG-13 horror film was well received by critics, but being released in the middle of a crowded summer didn’t help the film any. Coming in at a distant number two to Up was last weeks top dog Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian which dropped 55% in week number two which meant only $24 million over the weekend. Number three belonged to Terminator Salvation which saw an even bigger drop of 61.4%. Terminator only made another $16 million which brings its’ total to a mediocre $90. That may sound like a lot of money, but facing competition from Star Trek, and several kids movies, Terminator may not be the hit everyone thought it would be.

Star Trek rounded out the top five with another $12.6 million in the bank. After four weeks of release its’ grand total stands at $209 million. This makes Star Trek currently the highest grossing film of the year.

Next week brings Will Ferrell’s comedy Land of the Lost as well as the Vegas road trip comedy The Hangover. The next few weeks will see a lull at the box office until Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen drops and destroys everything around it. Look for Transformers 2 to be the biggest movie of the summer.

With two big box office competitors this weekend only one could come out on top. In one corner was Ben Stiller who was returning with his family friendly sequel to 2006′s Night at the Museum. In the other corner was Christian Bale, who coming off a stint of bad press, is leading the Terminator reboot, Terminator Salvation. Both films were highly buzzed about. Both actors have big followings. But you have to leave it to the kids to dominate the weekend box office. Especially when it is a holiday weekend, families were hitting their local multiplex, and while some were checking out Terminator, most were waiting in line for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

When the first Night at the Museum opened in December of 2006 it grossed $42.2 million over a four day holiday weekend. The sequel starring Ben Stiller easily topped the gross of it’s predecessor hitting $70 million over the Memorial Day Weekend. This is the highest opening weekend of Ben Stiller’s career and this pretty much guarantees us a third film in this very lucrative franchise. Like I said before, kids dominate the box office. Even if the film isn’t very good (Museum has an average 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) it still can make a killing. Another thing to note is the lack of kids movies currently out. The last high profile kid’s flick was Monsters VS. Aliens which was released back in March and currently stands as the highest grossing film so far this year.

On the other end of the box office spectrum was Terminator Salvation. Directed by McG, the Christian Bale, Sam Worthington action film is the first Terminator movie to hit theaters since Arnold brought us Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines back in 2003. T3 opened with a strong $44 million six years ago, and the fourth installment in the franchise opened with $53.8 million over the four day weekend. Since the movie opened on Thursday you can add an additional $13. 3 million to that tally bringing its’ total thus far to $67.2 million. The film has had mediocre reviews. It’s Rotten Tomatoes score is a weak 34%, and from what I hear the word of mouth has not been very positive.

The other wide release this weekend was Dance Flick which bombed with $13 million over the four day weekend. That’s all there really is to say about that…

So, how did my predictions hold up? Not too bad if I do say so myself. I was a little over the estimated totals which are being released but it was a tough weekend to predict because either Terminator or Museum could have easily taken the top spot. I originally predicted $78 million for Night at the Museum 2 ( it made $70 million) and my Terminator prediction was $72 million (it hit $67.2 million.)

The rest of the weekend box office looked like this:

Star Trek came in at number three with another small decline in it’s third week of release. J.J Abrams’ movie made another $29 million bringing its’ total to $191 million. The Star Trek reboot is days away from crossing Monsters VS. Aliens as the highest grossing movie of the year. Number four this weekend was last weekends champ Angels & Demons which fell only 40% with another $27.7 million this weekend. Number five went to Dance Flick and like I said earlier, nobody really cares.

This weekends box office was actually up 2% this weekend compared to last year when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made $126 million over Memorial Day weekend.

Next weekend we see the arrival of Pixar’s newest film Up. Check with us on Friday as we predict the weekend winner.

Source: Box Office Mojo