"Four Christmases" Wins Weekend, "Australia" In 5th

LOS ANGELES — Audiences spent Thanksgiving with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, whose holiday comedy "Four Christmases" took in $31.1 million to open as the top weekend movie. The film opened Wednesday to get a head start on the long weekend.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Media By Numbers LLC:

1. "Four Christmases," Warner Bros., $31,069,826, 3,310 locations, $9,387 average, $46,054,468, one week.

2. "Bolt," Disney, $26,581,002, 3,654 locations, $7,274 average, $66,848,840, two weeks.

3. "Twilight," Summit Entertainment, $26,344,032, 3,425 locations, $7,692 average, $119,706,509, two weeks.

4. "Quantum of Solace," Sony, $18,833,552, 3,501 locations, $5,379 average, $141,418,534, three weeks.

5. "Australia," Fox, $14,800,723, 2,642 locations, $5,602 average, $20,004,456, one week.

6. "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," Paramount, $14,207,329, 3,709 locations, $3,831 average, $159,066,369, four weeks.

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7. "Transporter 3," Lionsgate, $12,063,452, 2,626 locations, $4,594 average, $18,230,758, one week.

8. "Role Models," Universal, $5,191,180, 2,195 locations, $2,365 average, $57,780,820, four weeks.

9. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," Miramax, $1,696,187, 582 locations, $2,914 average, $5,169,495, four weeks.

10. "Milk," Focus, $1,453,844, 36 locations, $40,385 average, $1,941,472, one week.

11. "Slumdog Millionaire," Fox Searchlight, $1,346,039, 49 locations, $27,470 average, $3,544,374, three weeks.

12. "Changeling," Universal, $1,207,240, 1,010 locations, $1,195 average, $33,849,632, six weeks.

13. "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," Disney, $1,061,628, 1,385 locations, $767 average, $88,751,254, six weeks.

14. "The Secret Life of Bees," Fox Searchlight, $561,671, 490 locations, $1,146 average, $36,652,652, seven weeks.

15. "Rachel Getting Married," Sony Pictures Classics, $530,210, 216 locations, $2,455 average, $8,802,274, nine weeks.

16. "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," Weinstein Co., $524,425, 437 locations, $1,200 average, $30,439,806, five weeks.

17. "Soul Men," MGM, $455,335, 335 locations, $1,359 average, $11,652,750, four weeks.

18. "Fireproof," Samuel Goldwyn, $431,787, 486 locations, $888 average, $32,306,871, 10 weeks.

19. "The Dark Knight," Warner Bros., $343,366, 305 locations, $1,126 average, $530,258,989, 20 weeks.

20. "Happy-Go-Lucky," Miramax, $289,208, 202 locations, $1,432 average, $2,641,426, eight weeks.

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On the Net:

http://www.mediabynumbers.com

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Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Rogue Pictures are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Classics are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.

(This version CORRECTS item No. 5 "Australia" to correct figure to $20,004,456, sted $2,004,456. Moving on entertainment and financial services.)

Comments

[GreenSpot]

Empire
"Witherspoon works hard to convince us otherwise, but this is a miscast mess. Definitely a turkey rather than a Christmas pudding."

Channel 4 Film
"The mix of gross-out gags, slapstick and saccharine sentiment should boost the sale of indigestion tablets this festive season. "

L.A. Weekly
"The movie's pace is lethargic; it desperately needs a laugh track. Only, the joke's terrible to begin with."

[mamacat]

Went and saw "Australia" last weekend, and enjoyed it very much. The theatre was packed, mostly with seniors. I suspect its primary audience will be the older crowd. Kind of old-fashioned and sappy, but very well done.

Slap-sticks seem to do very well, as they have since talkies were first invented, but they have not appealed to me since I was a pre-teen.

[LMPE]

Well duh. Did anyone in his/her right mind actually believe that a Christmas movie would lose to a movie whose title is Rupert Murdoch's country (and by extension reminds people of Fox News)?

I haven't seen either movie. I'll probably wait til they come out on DVD. I'll be more likely to see "Milk".

PS: I don't blame all of Australia for Rupert Murdoch.

[trudem2]

Re Kidman's acting skills....a little credit please.

She totally ruled in "To Die For", and also in "The Others". Very, very convincing work in both movies.

[sweetbiscuit]

I agree, I think she does really well with the right directors. At least she makes interesting film choices, even though they aren't all great films. She should just lay off the botox already.

[ATS]

Big deal. Making 30 mil plus when your on almost 3500 screens is nothing. That's not even $10,000 per screen in a week.
Look at the per screen averages. Slumdog Millionaires made almost $30,000 per each screen it showed on. Milk made a staggering $40,000 per screen.
How staggering is it?
Take that $40,385 per screen average of Milk. With that number, if it was on as many screens as Four Christmases- 3310, it would have made $133,674,350 last week.
That is awesome. Milk and Slumdog are the real box office winners.

[12thharmonic]

I'm an American living in Sydney. I saw this Baz L. thing as a complete waste of time and money. I personaly cannot watch anything with Kidman in it. I find the fawning of the Aus press sad. She is at best an average actor. A step up from that wack-job ex Cruise. I have never seen the big deal with him, ever.

This film was a planned attempt to put Australian film on the international map again. I knew this would fail. What a waste.

The only good thing was the employmnt for our local film industry. Who these days work mostly on U.S. films. The exchange rate makes our labour cheap, and directors have an excuse to come down under.

The cross promotion feeding frenzy here around the film has been so saturated, I think many Australians will wait till it comes on TV in three months.

[sweetbiscuit]

It's too bad, because seeing this film on a small screen will basically ruin it (like any big sweeping epic).

[SeaBlood]

A true Southern Belle! It's hard to fathom that Reese's ancestor, Jonathon Witherspoon, was the First Governor of the State of New Joisey

[repugnicansfearme]

Yeah, but could he act, and was his a** half as nice as her?

[mudslide]

If you haven't, see "Role Models"...
It's a bit choppy and definitely lowbrow, but also smart and well-cast and funny as hell. (Think Apatow meets Chris Guest)
Probably the best comedy I've seen this year...

[ThoughtAboutIt]

Transporter 3 coming in 7th was a bigger surprise to me than overlong Australia's lower than expected numbers.

[Sammy00400]

I havent seen a good review of Australia anywhere. But dont say Kidman is simply bad in everything she does. She has made some good movies. It's just that a few of the bad ones are really bad and stand out. Then again, Bogart had made a couple of stinkers in his time.

[SamBaby]

I loved it. I loved the countryside. The acting is superb. The young boy is a delight. Definitely an "epic" - 3 hrs hours. However I was never impatient (and I have a Type A personality). The story moves right along. Don't wait for the DVD. You need to see this on the big screen.

[txgal44]

I absolutely loved this movie. Although, Nicole's face up close on a huge screen is not really what she needs right now. She's not looking too good in my opinion. But the little boy is fantastic. I think he steals the show.

[sweetbiscuit]

Not only is it a wonderful movie (if you like sweeping, non-cynical romance and adventure) but The New York Times and Los Angeles Time both gave it decent reviews. Plus, this movie will do well internationally, as most Luhrman films do (and they never bound out of the first weekend gate).

[InedaName]

Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar so she can be in this? What. Ever.

[Dehrenstein]

The Dingo ate her baby.

[captainindustry]

Could somebody please tell me how Australia ended? I had to leave after about 45 minutes. What was that.. a comedy? With a close up of a guy trampled to death in a close up?

What pathetic lines. Predictable, dull, stale. The computer animations looked so '90's

They should have just re-made The Thornbirds. And get a young beautiful Aussie starlet to play the lead. And let Kidman play one of the older roles. There are PLENTY of young beautiful Australian talented actresses out there. I loved Moulon Rouge (sp) but this Thanksgiving day release was a turkey. (heh heh)

[sweetbiscuit]

Um, no, it was not a comedy. And some find it refreshing that a leading lady isn't just some 20-year old. Interesting that you didn't think Jackman was too old. Maybe if you're interested in the ending, you can rent the DVD in about 8 months.

[captainindustry]

what. you don't think Nicole Kidman is capable of playing more mature and challenging roles? roles with depth?

the movie was lit like a comedy, and the bar fights were comedic. I left soon after.

It could have been the movie of the decade. The story of Australia with Nicole Kidman. I couldn't wait for it to open. I was so disappointed.

I will see every movie she ever makes, and I'm anxious to see her in something with a little more pith and merit.

Jackman looked incredible.

[WEPinAR]

I think the box office take tells us more about the audience than the quality of the picture or actors. I loathe "Christmas movies" because they are so silly and I just don't think that kind of "my family is weird but lovable" humor is all that funny. However, many people seem to enjoy that so if that's what they want then more power to 'em. There's room in the world for all kinds of movies...including cliche-filled, old-fashioned romances like Australia which I thoroughly enjoyed...and People Magazine got it totally right with Hugh Jackman by the way.

[Bigredhunk]

Hmmm....You mean to tell me we ADD folk don't want to sit through a 3-hour epic?? I'm shocked!!

I don't think Reese is America's sweetheart or anything. "4 X-Mas's" just won by default. It's a total crap movie. Most holiday movies are anymore. Just rented "Fred Claus," which was AWFUL too. Writers & directors need to give us better stories. So many of the movies released every year are turds.