Top Shelf at the Box Office

1. 2012- $65M

I'm sure it comes as a surprise to all of you that Roland Emmerich's latest bit of disaster porn has demolished the competition on it's way to the top spot this week, earning a healthy $65M, just $3M below 2004's The Day After Tomorrow. I guess it makes sense that both films did pretty much the same business since they are both essentially the same damn movie. Instead of getting chased by gusts of wind, people get chased by cracks in the road.

2. A Christmas Carol- $22.3M/$63.3M

As expected, Disney's animated retelling of the Dickens classic suffered very little dropoff, and I'm betting it will hold strong for a few more weeks as we get closer to the actual Christmas holiday. It's following a similar track to director Robert Zemeckis's first animated holiday feature, The Polar Express.

3. The Men Who Stare at Goats- $6.2M/$23.4M

I wonder if these so called 'psychic warriors" were able to forsee just how weak their film would be, both critically and financially. Considering the awesome premise, great marketing campaign, and wealth of A-list stars, this has to be a huge disappointment.

4. Precious- $6.09M/$8.91M

Maybe it's Oprah who's got the real psychic prowess, since she seems to be telepathically commanding her sheep-like followers to see this film, which I might add Oprah co-produced. Expanding to a modest 174 sites this week, Precious's opening weekend is second only to that of Paranormal Activity amongst films at less than 200 locations. That's none too shabby, and I expect business will pick up next week when it expands to a national level.

5. Michael Jackson's This Is It- $5.1M/$67.2M

This might be it for the short theatrical run for the King of Pop, dropping 61% in what I belive is it's final week of release.

6. The Fourth Kind- $4.74M/$20.6M

7. Couples Retreat- $4.25M/$102M

As much as I may want to knock this lame comedy for adults, it broke the $100M barrier so they must've done something right.

8. Paranormal Activity- $4.2M/$104M

9. Law Abiding Citizen- $3.93M/$67.3M

10. The Box- $3.19M/$13.2M

Wishing someone would press the button on this lame flick and get it outta here.

Also...

Remember that movie that came out, I think it was about rock 'n roll, and how a bunch of snobby British guys tried to ban it but a bunch of rebellious DJ's took to the oceans aboard a big pirate ship and began broadcasting illegally across the airwaves thus saving rock 'n roll music forever! That movie was called Pirate Radio, and it might as well have not been released here in the States at all, considering it's woeful opening pulling in $2.8M at 882 sites. That's over 700 more than Precious had, and it still got slaughtered.

Wes Anderson's whimsical stop motion animated tale, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, opened at only 4 sites and pulled in a whopping $260,000! Wow. That's $65,000 per site average. The film expands nationally next week.