New Moon Stays Strong at Box Office

To almost no one’s surprise, New Moon, the second movie in the Twilight series, held onto the top spot in its second week of release, earning $42.5 million over the weekend. Director Chris Weitz’s picture has now grossed a whopping $230.6 million in the United States. The Sandra Bullock drama The Blind Side surprisingly came close to beating New Moon, earning $40.1 million (up from its $34 million haul last week) and holding onto spot number two. But the most gaudy number of the weekend belongs to the Disney film The Princess and the Frog. The 2-D animated movie earned $712,000 at just two theaters, making for a per theater average of $356,000 and proving that there is still a massive audience for hand-drawn animation.

Roland Emmerich’s disaster film 2012 held steady at spot number three with $18 million, while the new release Old Dogs, starring John Travolta and Robin Williams, took spot number four with $16.8 million. Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol rounded out the top five making $16 million over the weekend—pushing it over the $100 million mark just as the Christmas season really gets underway.

New releases Ninja Assassin ($13.1 million) and The Road ($1.5 million in only 111 theaters) took spots six and 11, respectively. Rebecca Miller’s The Private Lives of Pippa Lee ($96,000 in 12 theaters) and Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles ($64,800 in 4 theaters) landed at spots 22 and 23.

Next weekend New Moon will have to contend with some limited releases—Up in the Air, directed by Jason Reitman and starring George Clooney; Everybody’s Fine, a holiday comedy starring Robert DeNiro; and Serious Moonlight, the directorial debut of actress Cheryl Hines.