Immortals Beats the Competition to Box Office Victory

Tarsem Singh’s swords and sandals epic Immortals came out on top at the box office last weekend, earning $32 million and beating out fellow new release Jack and Jill by $6 million. The latter film was able to overcome the severe critical drubbing it received (current rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 3%) to earn $26 million over the weekend, enough to land it in second place. Last week’s number one, Puss in Boots (weekend gross $25.5 million, total gross $108.8 million) came in third, and Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist (weekend gross $13.1 million, total gross $43.8 million) dropped two spots to number four. Rounding out the top five was Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, which earned only $11.4 million during its opening weekend.

New movies out in limited release were Melancholia ($263,500), Into the Abyss ($48,800), 11-11-11 ($38,100), The Conquest ($18,000), Elite Squad: The Enemy Within ($9,500), London Boulevard ($3,300) and About Fifty ($2,500).

Coming out next weekend in wide release are Happy Feet Two and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1. Adults in search of something new will probably have better luck with the limited releases, which include Another Happy Day, Eames: The Architect & The Painter, Garbo: The Spy, The Lie, Rid of Me and Tyrannosaur. In addition, this Wednesday sees the limited release of Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, which has been the recipient of substantial Oscar buzz since its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.