It was one of the most crowded wide release weekends before Christmas, but several high profile newcomers made little impact on the otherwise quiet box-office.
The most notable was of course Mel Gibson's Mayan epic "Apocalypto" which people had no idea what to expect results wise. On the one hand Gibson as a director can open a film and the film has gotten a lot of coverage in the press.
On the other most of that coverage tied to the recent D.U.I. scandal involving Gibson and not the film itself, plus the violent and somewhat obtuse subject matter drew concern over connecting with audiences.
Still, "Apocalypto" managed to win the top spot, albeit with only $14 million. It seems decidedly weak (this time last year "Narnia" opened to more than four times that amount), but considering certain factors it could've been a lot worse.
Also
doing quiet but alright was the all-star romantic comedy "The Holiday". As there is little out there in the way of competition in the romantic comedy genre this season, the film will probably have some legs - and will need them to earn back its rather hefty $85 million budget.
The disappointments this week came from Warner Bros. unfortunately with both their Leonardo DiCaprio-led African drama "Blood Diamond" and comedy "Unaccompanied Minors" bombing on impact.
'Diamond' pulled in $8.5 million, 'Minors' just $6 million. Admittedly 'Diamond' had the smallest number of screens to open on of the four newcomers which made the impact less, but the film itself costs considerably more.
'Diamond' is expected to have a much bigger draw in international markets, but how it performs there won't be determined for a while yet.
The twin success stories "Happy Feet" and "Casino Royale" are on the wane finally, the films beginning the steady decline after a stellar run. The decline continues to be soft as well - "Happy Feet" falling just 27.5% and Bond 41.8%.
The biggest drop of note in the whole list was last week's horror flick "Turistas" which fell a whopping 62.7%. "Volver" continues to have the best average of any film on the market with a stellar $8,568 per screen haul.
