12/7/2009

in

Four new movies fared badly, while Bullock came out on top again.

Blakely Slater

The four new movies that opened this weekend showed less than stellar results.  
  
"Armored," "Brothers," "Everybody's Fine," and "Transylmania" all brought in less than $10 million at the box office the weekend of December 4. To be fair, the weekend following the Thanksgiving boom is always slow, and total box-office receipts actually rose 23% from last year, reports the [LA Times](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-boxoffice7-2009dec07,0,6939966.story).  
  
"Brothers," starring Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal, did the best out of the four with $9.7 million. "Transylmania" almost broke a record, and not the good kind, for its sales performance. The film grossed only $274,000, which is the third worst movie opening ever for a feature shown in over 600 theaters.  
  
Amidst all the bad, there was some good.  
  
George Clooney's "Up in the Air" sold a studio-estimated $1.2 million in tickets. Although this is lower than "Brothers," the Paramount Pictures film only played in 15 theaters. With an average of $79,000 per venue, the comedy became the third highest ranked movie in terms of sales per theater.  
  
The football drama "The Blind Side," stayed strong again this weekend, earning an additional $20.4 million. With this added amount, the film has now made $129.3 million from tickets. The numbers are especially successful considering that Alcon Entertainment only spent $35 million making the movie.