Weekend box-office: Apocalypto leads anemic pack

Movies News

By Scott Rosenberg Dec 10, 2006, 23:59 GMT

What an anemic weekend at the box-office.

The top twelve box-office earners took in 25percent less than the same weekend a year-ago. But then, we had blockbuster ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ that pulled in families for a little “comfort and joy” for the holidays and for the three previous years we had the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.“Bah Humbug” what a holiday season this is turning out to be!Poor Mel Gibson, (poor? – With an $84 million bow - $370 million total take to date for his last film ‘Passion of the Christ’- he ain’t so poor), even though his latest film ‘Apocalypto’ has come in first at this weekend’s box-office with a $14.2 million take from 2,465 locations, it is also the lowest sum for a No. 1 movie since the traditionally slow weekend of Sept. 8-10, when the low-budget horror film ‘The Covenant’ was tops with $8.9 million.In second place was, director Nancy Meyers' ‘The Holiday,’ starring Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Movie opened with $13.5 million from 2,610 locations.Rory Bruer, president of distribution at Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corporation said the movie performed "respectably." Not surprisingly, the romantic comedy audience was 65 percent female and older (57 percent aged 25 and above). (Was it Jack Black that brought in the ladies?)In its fourth week, Warner Bros.’ ‘Happy Feet’ are still dancing across movie screens taking in $12.7 million from 3,650 locations for a total cume to date of $137.7 million.And also for the fourth week in a row it was Penguins vs. 007 with Sony Pictures’ 007 thriller ‘Casino Royale’ falling in behind the dancing penguins (again) taking in $8.8 million from 3,161 locations for a total take of $128.9 million.In a disappointing fifth place is Edward Zwick’s (‘Glory,’ ‘The Last Samurai’) actioner ‘Blood Diamond,’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio. “Diamond” pulled in only $8.5 million from 1,910 locations in its first weekend run.Even with this year’s box-office being 4 percent higher year-to-date than last year, Hollywood is hoping with only 14 more days until Christmas, big openers like ‘Eragon,’ ‘Night at the Museum,’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ will drive ticket sales past the $9 billion mark for the year.