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.