The football-inspired drama The Blind Side has become the underdog hit of the season with a US$20.4 million weekend and a box-office victory over The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
The Warner Bros sports tale had been runner-up for the previous two weekends to Summit Entertainment's vampire romance New Moon, which fell to second place with US$15.7 million.
Great word-of-mouth from fans has sustained The Blind Side, which stars Sandra Bullock as a woman whose family adopts homeless teen Michael Oher, now a rookie tackle for the Baltimore Ravens.
"How outstanding is it to have a movie at No. 1 in its third weekend?" said Jeff Goldstein, executive vice president for distribution at Warner, who added that the movie so far has done more than double the business he expected. "I don't know of anybody who ever saw anything this big."
New Moon still is far ahead in total gross with US$255.6 million in North America, compared to US$129.3 million for The Blind Side. Around the world, New Moon added US$40.7 million to raise its international total to US$314.5 million and its worldwide gross to US$570.1 million.
The Blind Side and New Moon fended off a rush of new wide releases that had so-so to abysmal openings.
The nationwide debuts were overshadowed by a huge premiere in limited release for George Clooney's comedy Up in the Air, which took in nearly US$1.2 million at just 15 theatres for a whopping average of US$79,000 a cinema.
Directed by Jason Reitman (Juno), Paramount's Up in the Air has earned great reviews and buzz as a potential Academy Awards front-runner, positioning it for a long run in theatres as it expands nationwide over the next few weeks. Clooney plays a corporate hit man addicted to the frequent-flyer life as he travels the country firing people for downsizing companies.
Lionsgate's war-on-terror-themed drama Brothers debuted at No. 3 with US$9.7 million, averaging US$4,646 in 2,088 theatres. A remake of a 2004 Danish film, Brothers stars Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal in the story of a prisoner of war who returns from Afghanistan to find his sibling has become the man of the house for his family.
Sony's heist thriller Armored, with Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne, premiered with US$6.6 million and tied for No. 6, averaging US$3,446 in 1,915 theatres.
Another foreign-language remake - Miramax's Everybody's Fine, with Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale in an update of a 1990 Italian film - opened a weak No. 10 with US$4 million for an average of US$1,888 in 2,133 cinemas. De Niro plays a retiree on a journey to reconnect with his grown children.
The vampire mania over New Moon did not extend to Full Circle Releasing's bloodsucker comedy Transylmania, which took in just US$274,000 in 1,007 theatres for a dismal average of US$272. The movie is a campus-horror spoof about students studying at a Transylvania college overrun by vampires.
Overall revenues came in at US$101 million, up 22.6 percent from the same weekend last year, when Four Christmases was No. 1 with US$16.8 million.
Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com, estimates domestic receipts will finish at US$10.6 billion for the year, easily surpassing the industry's all-time high of US$9.68 billion in 2007.
Revenues stand at US$9.66 billion after this weekend, so Hollywood should break that 2007 record in the next couple of days, Dergarabedian said.
With big movies such as James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar opening December 18 and Robert Downey Jr.'s crime saga Sherlock Holmes and the family comedy Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel arriving Christmas week, that US$10.6 billion estimate for the year might prove conservative, Dergarabedian said.
"It will probably go higher if we consistently outperform the way we have been," Dergarabedian said.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Hollywood.com (all figures in US dollars):
- The Blind Side, $20.4 million.
- The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $15.7 million.
- Brothers, $9.7 million.
- Disney's a Christmas Carol, $7.5 million.
- Old Dogs, $6.9 million.
- Armored (tie), $6.6 million.
- 2012 (tie), $6.6 million.
- Ninja Assassin, $5 million.
- Planet 51, $4.3 million.
- Everybody's Fine, $4 million.
AP