Weekend Box Office: December 10-12

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - $24.5 million

2.  The Tourist - $17 million

3.  Tangled - $14.5 million

4.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - $8.5 million

5.  Unstoppable - $3.7 million

6.  Black Swan - $3.6 million

7.  Burlesque - $3.2 million

8.  Love and Other Drugs - $3 million

9.  Due Date - $2.54 million

10.  Megamind - $2.51 million

So Narnia is back...and it appears that hardly anyone noticed.  The third film in CS Lewis' fantasy series opened even lower than expected with just $24.5 million.  That's less than half of the opening weekend of Prince Caspian, which opened with $55 million, and barely a shadow of The Lion, The Witch, and  The Wardrobe's $65 million opening back in 2005.  On a somewhat optimistic note, the movie did get an impressive "A" Cinemascore rating from the audience that did show up and there is a big school holiday week coming up, so it might.  But between Tangled having another good weekend and the impending release of Tron, Disney must be awfully relieved that they decided to ditch this series.

It also looks like audiences weren't too impressed by the pairing up of Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, either.  The Tourist opened in second place with $17 million, which is not terrible, but great either.  Expect this one to get lost in the shuffle as the holiday week approaches and the Oscar hopefuls start to get wider releases.

Speaking of Oscar hopefuls, it was a great weekend for the Darren Aronofsky thriller Black Swan, which expanded to 90 theaters nationwide landed in sixth place with $3.3 million.  When I saw it on Friday night there were people sitting on the stairs because they couldn't find seats and two shows after it were already sold out, so this is a popular one.  The same goes for The Fighter, which earned a terrific $320,000 in just four theaters.

Tangled continues to play very well, finishing the weekend well ahead of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows with $14.5 million, bringing its total to $115 million.  is starting to fade from theaters, but at $727 million worldwide and counting, I don't think too many studio heads are concerned that this is turning out to be the least-attended of the Potter films.

Otherwise, a fairly mild weekend at the box office, as this week's new wide releases have certainly shown.  Next weekend, we get the big 3D/IMAX release of Tron: Legacy and (god help us all) Yogi Bear.  If anything, it should bring us a much happier-sounding box office report.