Weekend Box Office: December 9 - 11

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  New Year's Eve - $13 million

2.  The Sitter - $9.8 million

3.  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 - $7.8 million

4.  The Muppets - $6.9 million

5.  Arthur Christmas - $6.5 million

6.  Hugo - $6 million

7.  The Descendants - $4.3 million

8.  Happy Feet Two - $3.6 million

9.  Jack and Jill - $3 million

10.  Immortals - $2.4 million

This was such a dud weekend at the box office that it's barely worth reporting, but here it goes:  the even-the-billboard-ads-are-annoying comedy (?) New Year's Eve topped the box office with a meager $13 million.  When that's the best any of this weekend's movies can do, we're in trouble.  So much trouble, in fact, that this was not only the weakest weekend at the box office this year, it was the worst weekend at the box office since September 2008.  Yikes.

By comparison, the New Year's Eve clone Valentine's Day opened with $56.3 million.  That makes that $13 million look that much worse, doesn't it?  So let's not expect a star-studded salute to the Fourth of July or anything next year.   

It also looks like the majority of the moviegoing audience enjoyed The Sitter much better when it was 1987 and called Adventures in Babysitting, as the Jonah Hill comedy flatlined with a mere $9.8 million.

Twilight is still chugging along, earning another $7.8 million, making it the third-highest grossing movie this year behind Transformers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  Breathe easily, fanboys, it won't come close to passing either of those. 

As far as our wonderfully reviewed family films that the masses don't seem all that interested in seeing:  The Muppets drops to fourth place with $6.9 million.  At $65 million, that makes it the highest-grossing Muppet film, but when you factor in inflation on ticket prices, it still lags behind the original Muppet Movie in 1979.  Audiences are starting to catch on that Arthur Christmas is a sweet little holiday film, since that animated film only dropped a minimal 12% drop since last weekend.

Hugo expanded into more theaters this weekend and earned another $6 million.  Despite some recent awards recognition, the movie seems to be catching on slowly, having only grossed about $33 million.

Fellow awards favorite The Descendants continues to do well, earning another $4.3 million.  In limited release, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Young Adult were in a virtual dead heat, with Tinker just eeking out a win by finishing the weekend barely $300 ahead. 

Next weekend will hopefully bring about an end to the recent box-office slump, as the multiplexes will be overrun by sequels Alvin & the Chipmunks 3, Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows, and the prologue to The Dark Knight Rises...I mean, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  If that can't save the box office, nothing will.