Box Office Takedown 12/26-12/28

The Christmas holiday weekend is traditionally one of the strongest of the year, and this weekend was no exception. The Lord of the Rings continued to dominate the charts, scoring an amazing $50 million in its second weekend, more than Fellowship made in its first weekend back in 2001. So far, the conclusion to Peter Jackson's trilogy has amassed $222 million domestically, and shows no signs of slowing down. With no new films opening this weekend and the simple fact that there is almost nothing opening this January, expect Return of the King to sit on top of its oliphant-sized box office for a while now, especially with the Oscar nominations happening a lot sooner than normal.

The new releases fared from excellent to disappointing-- to all the wrong movies. The Steve Martin cliché-fest Cheaper by the Dozen landed in the #2 spot with a surprising $27 million. The Nicole Kidman-starring piece of Oscar bait Cold Mountain didn't exactly find itself on top of a mountain of cash, collecting $14 million. For a film with as big a budget as it, Miramax had better pray the word of mouth is better than early signs are showing.

The two most disappointing, however, belonged to big-budget flicks Paycheck and Peter Pan. The former actually dropped in gross every day since opening, indicating that word of mouth will be pretty killer in the long run for the latest piece of John Woo-lite. The latter, despite generally good reviews and overwhelmingly positive audience reaction, floundered into 7th place, not even coming close to the second star on the right, even though it deserves to. I'll never understand the mass audience: most people complain about the lack of creativity in kid's films nowadays, how they're the same plots and gags over and over, but when something creative and imaginative comes out...no one sees it. Hollywood isn't going to stop making shit until you stop paying to see shit, people. Let's grow some brain wave activity and stop swallowing whatever Hollywood regurgitates down out throat.

Here are the top ten films at the box office, supplied by Variety.com and BoxOfficeMojo:


1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King$50,598,104
% Change from last weekend: -30.3%
Gross to date: $222,268,708

2. Cheaper by the Dozen$27,557,647
% Change from last weekend: NEW
Gross to date: $35,397,241

3. Cold Mountain $14,574,213
% Change from last weekend: NEW
Gross to date: $19,079,727

4. Something's Gotta Give$13,816,638
% Change from last weekend: +21%
Gross to date: $55,902,582

5. Paycheck $13,462,374
% Change from last weekend: NEW
Gross to date: $18,615,272

6. Mona Lisa Smile$11,351,439
% Change from last weekend: -1.5%
Gross to date: $31,226,270

7. Peter Pan$11,139,495
% Change from last weekend: NEW
Gross to date: $14,627,615

8. The Last Samurai$8,326,947
% Change from last weekend: +7.2%
Gross to date: $74,324,104

9. Bad Santa$4,526,000
% Change from last weekend: -11.3%
Gross to date: $50,947,195

10. Elf$3,906,028
% Change from last weekend: -29%
Gross to date: $164,648,692