What can you say? The box office has been in quite a slump since Twilight: Breaking Dawn and The Muppets hit the big screen over the Thanksgiving weekend. This weekend both New Year’s Eve and The Sitter failed to bring in audiences and had critics everywhere scratching their heads. Hey Hollywood, why don’t you expand the screens for films we actually want to see like My Week with Marilyn, Shame, and The Artist? Hell, I’d pay to see those, and I’m sure I’m not the only one willing to shell out some hard-earned cash for films that actually deserve it.
At the top of the haystack sits New Year’s Eve with a whopping $13.7 million, just $42 million shy of director Gary Marshall’s first star-crammed attempt of Valentine’s Day. Well, I think it’s time to throw in the towel Marshall, the formula just doesn’t work. You stuff in as many A-list actors as possible and what do you get? Undeveloped stories, actors trying to out-shine each other, and cheesy one-liners that have no business spewing out of Michelle Pfeiffer’s mouth. With a cast that was slightly more impressive than that of Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve starred Zac Efron, Hilary Swank, Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Lea Michelle, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bon Jovi (who I’m sure was the film’s Taylor Swift) and many, many more. Everyone of these actors should receive a Razzie for dumbest career move.
In second place, pulling in only $10 million, sits The Sitter starring Jonah Hill. Not even the funny man himself could save the film from complete box office disappointment. Maybe America’s tired of babysitting stories; we’ve been dealt a many disappointments before, not going to waste our money on another one. The Sitter takes a back seat in a successful year for R-rated comedies.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 came in at 3rd place with $7.9 million. It’s the only film this week that took drop of 50% since last weekend. So far the vamps have taken in a domestic total of $260 million and $600 million world-wide.
The Muppets, unfortunately suffering from a lack of interested audience, came in at 4th adding another $7 million, rounding out the film’s total to $66 million. And with that number, the film is currently the highest grossing Muppets movie to date topping the 1979 film, The Muppet Movie.
Arthur Christmas came in fifth place with $6.6 million with only a 10% drop from last weekend. Not bad at all.
Next week is sure to the box office seeing green, with the highly anticipated chipmunk sequel, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-wrecked and the highly anticipated action film, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
Box Office Report for December 9th-December 11th:
- New Year’s Eve $13.7 million
- The Sitter $10 million
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 $7.9 million
- The Muppets $7 million
- Arthur Christmas $6.6 million
- Hugo $6.1 million
- The Descendants $4.8 million
- Happy Feet 2 $3.75 million
- Jack and Jill $3.2 million
- Immortals $2.4 million
