Ho-Ho-Hum Weekend for Jim Carrey; Ho-Ho-Worse for Cameron Diaz

Joal Ryan, eonline
Sun Nov 8, 5:43 PM EST
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Holiday movie season and high Oscar season have kicked off. But only one is kicking mistletoe.

While Jim Carrey 's A Christmas Carol led a bah-humbug weekend with an underwhelming $31 million, per estimates, the Oprah Winfrey- and Tyler Perry-backed award-show contender Precious grossed a stunning $1.8 million at only 18 theaters.

Elsewhere, Michael Jackson 's This Is It did its thing (solid $14 million here, bigger $29 million overseas), George Clooney 's The Men Who Stare at Goats ($13.3 million) did better than expected for a movie with goats and George Clooney in it, and Cameron Diaz 's The Box ($7.9 million) just didn't really open.

A look inside the numbers:

• It's not that it's bad to make $31 million in 72 hours, as A Christmas Carol is expected to do. It's just that it's not good to not make something closer to your $175 million-ish budget (especially when you're charging 3-D-ticket prices).

• This time last year, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa started off the holiday season with a $63.1 million bang.

• Here's the good news for A Christmas Carol: One, holiday movies tend to keep well during holiday season; and, two, director Robert Zemeckis has experience at turning a sluggish start into a success story. In 2004, his pricey The Polar Express impressed nobody with a $23.3 million opening; the Tom Hanks film ended up avoiding disaster and, given reissues and overseas receipts, grossing $305 million.

• Precious is not messing around. Not since Dreamgirls has a movie averaged at least $100,000 per theater (by comparison, A Christmas Carol averaged $8,417), and not since ever, Exhibitor Relations says, has a movie playing at more than 10 theaters averaged six figures.

• To put it another way, Precious grossed about as much at 18 theaters as The Stepfather ($1.9 million) did at 1,400-plus.

• For those keeping score, Jackson's concert film held up better in its second weekend than Miley Cyrus ' did. Cyrus' Best of Both Worlds, however, remains the genre champ (for now) with a $65.3 million overall gross. This Is It currently stands at $57.9 million.

• Jackson continues to dominate Cyrus globally. Overall, Best of Both Worlds "only" made $5.4 million overseas; This Is It broke the $100 million mark on Thursday.

• George Clooney is a bona-fide movie star, but outside of the Ocean's Eleven franchise, he's not exactly a box-office star. As modest as its debut was, the quirky The Men Who Stare at Goats opened bigger than all but seven of Clooney's 20-plus movies.

• With a reputed budget of $25 million, The Box isn't a bomb. But the thriller is Diaz's lowest-grossing wide-release opener since the prophetically titled Very Bad Things back in 1998.

• For one weekend, at least, Milla Jovovich 's The Fourth Kind ($12.5 million) scared up more money than Paranormal Activity ($8.6 million; $97.4 million overall).

• Jigsaw has been cut down. Saw VI ($2 million) dropped out of the top 10 after just two weekends. To date, the horror sequel has grossed $26.2 million. The previous "lowest"-grossing Saw, the 2004 original, took in $55.2 million.

• Missing again: Hilary Swank 's $40 million Amelia ($1.8 million; $11.3 million overall, per Box Office Mojo) disappeared from the top 10 after a one-weekend stay.

Here's a look at the weekend's top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

Disney's A Christmas Carol, $31 million

Michael Jackson's This Is It, $14 million

The Men Who Stare at Goats, $13.3 million

The Fourth Kind, $12.5 million

Paranormal Activity, $8.6 million

The Box, $7.9 million

Couples Retreat, $6.4 million

Law Abiding Citizen, $6.2 million

Where the Wild Things Are, $4.2 million

Astro Boy, $2.6 million

(Originally published Nov. 8, 2009, at 9:44 a.m. PT)