Dark Knight and Spidey III still No.1 and 2 opening weekends yet biggest bite this year comes from Twilight II

By Keith Williams

kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson take a bite of young love

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/22/09 –Millions of teenage girls fainted across America this weekend as hotly-awaited New Moon, the second part of Summit’s werewolf/vampire saga,  drained an estimated $140.7   million from 4024 twilight zones.  The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock’s latest, based on a true sob story, inspired a worthy $34.5 million at 3110 football pitches, but Planet 51 never reached orbit with only $12.6 million sucked out of 3035 black holes.

Shattering records, breaking hearts, with popcorn through the roof, Twilight – New Moon, Stephanie Meyer’s sequel to, well, Twilight, exceeded expectations by showing female fans can be just as rabid as their male counterparts when it comes to packing the multiplexes.

Bearing in mind that I, the writer of this article, am not exactly the target demo for these Mills & Boon-lite fantasies, being over 60, male, and Welsh, it has to be said that this new installment is much more interesting than its predecessor and captures the hormonal angst-ridden wish fulfilments pre-occupyingjust about every under-age female in the land.

Bringing out the inner-virgin lurking in all of us, it does exactly what you’d hoped it’d do – reflect up on the big screen desires we can neither vocalise or ever dream of realising.  After the fiasco of The Golden Compass, director Chris Weisz redeems himself with a solid, even old-fashioned approach to a tale of repressed love released, helped by Taylor Lautner with his pack of Bare-Wolves, Michael Sheen camping it up like Tony Blair with fangs, and Dakota Fanning looking like she’d been staring at the blu-ray of War of the Worlds for too long.

As for Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, both of whom seemed a bit vapid in the original, here they excel at convincing us of their love, as well as how a hunky werewolf could conceivably come between them.  Receipts will probably evaporate in the next couple of hours, but for Summit, Xmas has come early, and pay off all the debts of just everything else they’ve ever released.

If you’ve seen the teary-eyed trailer for The Blind Side, it’s little wonder Sandra Bullock’s third, and biggest new opener this year should have attracted the crowds it did.  The Proposal featured Funny Sandra to the applause of middle-aged women everywhere, Psycho Sandra’s All About Steve drove them away, now it seems that Mother Teresa Sandra (alebit with a bit of attitude) has brought them galloping back again.  Bullock fans can be notoriously fickle, but when her persona coincides with what they adore – that wicked twinkle in her narrowed eyes – out they come as if they’d never been away.  Kudos to Warner Bros for successful counter-programming, they’re probably plotting already what to open against The Wolfman next year.  Or not.

At 3, last week’s blockbuster 2012 plunged 59.4% for $26.5 million, having accumulated $108 million in the US alone, a drop not completely unexpected given the trajectory of these front-loaded slambangers as well as the new competition in town.

Planet 51 followed at 4, starring extra-terrestrials almost as grim-looking as those in Aliens in the Attic.  Hoping to puncture the family market, it failed to make substantial contact with the denizens of Earth – well, America, that’s the same thing, isn’t it? – trailing in the same spacedust that Astro Boy recently choked on.  Whether it was lack of 3D, too many other animated features clogging the market of late, or just plain not funny or original enough, this Spanish produced effort seems destined for a merciful crash-landing soon, while those from Pixar and DreamWorks soar mightily above, maintaining orbit through well-crafted screenplays, engaging characters, and mighty budgets at their disposal.  Even space-fans have ethics.

At 5, Disney’s Christmas Carol lost 45.2% of its orphan choir to rattle $12.2 million in the poor cup, at 6 Precious actually rose by 87.4% to take a glittering $11 million from arthouse lovers’ purses, The Men Who Stared at Goats followed at 7, losing another 52.7% of curiosity seekers for a measly $2.7 million, while at 8, Couples Retreat fell by 53.1% for a fading $1.9 million, its membership of the $100 million club intact.

Over in alien abduction land, The Fourth Kind at 9 plummetted 62.4% to kidnap a feeble $1.7 million,  leaving Law Abiding Citizen this week’s candidate for top ten departure by terrorising an unscary $1.6 million from 57.5% less of inmates.

Weekend Estimates courtesy boxofficeguru.com and boxofficemojo.com

WEEKEND TOP 5 STUDIO ESTIMATES, NOVEMBER 20-22, 2009

Rank. Movie Title (Distributor)
Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #

1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Summit Entertainment)
$140.7 million | 4,024 | $140.7 million | 1

2. The Blind Side (Warner Bros.)
$34.5 million | 3,110 | $34.5 million | 1

3. 2012 (Sony / Columbia)
$26.5 million | 3,408 | $108.2 million | 2

4. Planet 51 (Sony / Columbia)
$12.6 million | 3,035 | $12.6 million | 1

5. A Christmas Carol (2009) (Buena Vista)
$12.2 million | 3,578 | $79.8 million | 3