Box Office: New Year’s Eve Not The Toast Of Hollywood This Weekend

News


New Year’s Glee or New Year’s Evil?

It’s not even Christmas and already the movie business is suffering from a holiday hangover. We will have another weekend of dismal box office numbers, but we will have a new number one, as New Year’s Eve supplants Breaking Dawn. That should come as no surprise, as the holiday rom-com ensemble from Warner Bros. was expected to finish first. Last year’s Valentine’s Day, released the same weekend that chocolate and flower purchases spike, made an impressive $56.2 million. As for Eve, released three weekends before the ball drops in Times Square, it will be lucky to finish with $18 million.

Considering the amount of talent the film included (TV stars, Academy Award winners, et al.) a better opening number would have been expected. But talent only gets you so far. Yes, it’s an anthology comedy set in New York full of stories with New Year’s Eve being the theme. But you have to wonder how different the comedy would have been if it was spread out and not central to the Big Apple. Still, the average theatergoer seemed to enjoy enough to give it a B+ CinemaScore.

Fox’s The Sitter looks to finish second and again explores David Gordon Green’s laughing clown phase, where he is all smiles on the outside because people are watching his films but crying on the inside because he knows that each of his recent comedies (Pineapple Express, Your Highness and now The Sitter) show a steady decline in laughs. And this is coming from someone who didn’t abhor Highness like most. Billed as a raunchy dude version of Adventures in Babysitting, fat Jonah Hill tries to be one last barrel of laughs before Slim Fast Jonah Hill takes over in 2012 in 21 Jump Street and Neighborhood Watch.

Early box office estimates from Deadline. Look for our full recap of this weekend’s box office on Monday morning.

1. New Years Eve (Warner Bros) NEW [3,505 Theaters]
Friday $5.5M, Estimated Weekend $16M

2. The Sitter (Fox) NEW [2,750 Theaters]

Friday $3.5M, Estimated Weekend $9M

3. Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Summit) Week 4 [3,605 Theaters]

Friday $2.4M, Estimated Weekend $7M, Estimated Cume $258.8M

4. The Muppets (Disney) Week 3 [3,328 Theaters]
Friday $1.7M, Estimated Weekend $7M, Estimated Cume $65.7M

5. Hugo (Paramount) Week 3 [2,608 Theaters]
Friday $1.6M, Estimated Weekend $6M, Estimated Cume $33.3M

6. Arthur Christmas (Sony) Week 3 [3,272 Theaters]
Friday $1.5M, Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $33.4M

7. The Descendants (Fox Searchlight) Week 4 [876 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Estimated Weekend $4.3M, Estimated Cume $23.5M

8. Happy Feet Two (Warner Bros) Week 4 [2,840 Theaters]
Friday $950K, Estimated Weekend $4M, Estimated Cume $57.1M

9. Jack and Jill (Sony) Week 5 [2,787 Theaters]
Friday $875K, Estimated Weekend $3M, Estimated Cume $68.4M

10. Immortals (Relativity) Week 5 [2,286 Theaters]
Friday $750K, Estimated Weekend $2.5M, Estimated Cume $79.9m

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!