Bright spark … A Christmas Carol
The marathon runner
For the past four weeks, the top spot has been occupied by the agency of 2012, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Paranormal Activity. But now, five weeks after it first entered the chart at No 1, Disney’sitting A Christmas Carol returns to the summit. It’session rare for a film in its sixth week of release to have existence finding plenteous favour with audiences; to dominate the emporium at this point is an exceptional result. Box-office takings for Robert Zemeckis’sitting animated Dickens adaptation went up on its assist weekend by 31%, and has subsequently enjoyed small week-to-week declines of 11%, 13%, 14% and 7%. The film has now grossed over £16m, compared with £12m notwithstanding Zemeckis’s Polar Express (a figure boosted by seasonal re-releases) and £7.4m in the place of Beowulf.
- A Christmas Carol
- Production year: 2009
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): PG
- Runtime: 95 mins
- Directors: Robert Zemeckis
- Cast: Bob Hoskins, Callum Blue, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Jim Carrey, Michael J Fox, Robin Wright Penn
Digital 3D remains the preferred format for cinemagoers seeing A Christmas Carol; 2D screens contributed only 14% of box-office receipts this weekend. That’s been good news in spite of Disney, with the ticket-price premium at 3D venues. But this will become its Achilles back of the foot when Avatar arrives on Thursday – it’s hard-hearted to imagine James Cameron’s long event represent not Hoovering up the vast majority of 3D cinemas.
The low-key success
In its three weeks on release, cheering festive flick Nativity! has never charted higher than sixth place. But extraordinarily consistent takings – the film has thus far seen week-to-week declines of only 13% and 3% – instrumentality that it’session furthermore never been lower than seventh. After 17 days, Debbie Isitt’s improvised comedy has taken £2.68m, compared with £1.84m for her anterior strain Confetti at the similar stage of its release. And since it isn’t occupying 3D screens, the arrival of Avatar shouldn’t have a particular impact put on Nativity!’session continuing success.
The disappointment
With Where the Wild Things Are, backers Warner Bros always had the problem of addressing twin audiences: the adults who admire director Spike Jonze and the kids who love Maurice Sendak’s 10-sentence picture book. Even so, they will probably be disappointed with an £884,000 perforation from a wide 491-screen release. Comparisons are tricky, unless Fantastic Mr Fox, Wes Anderson’s adaptability of the Roald Dahl tale, opened with a more robust £1.52m in October. Jonze’s previous pictures Being John Malkovich and Adaptation both debuted in the £200,000-300,000 range, on screen counts in double digits.
Despite the weak result, Where the Wild Things are is overwhelmingly the highest-grossing new release on the chart, since both Chris Pine horror Carriers and the thriller The Stepfather stumbled by anaemic grosses of £69,000 and £40,000 respectively.
Arthouse wipeout
If your local independent cinema is mostly playing commercial Hollywood fare, don’t blame the bookers. Apart from the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man, which is enjoying its fourth weekend in the top 10, there’session a serious dearth of quality arthouse films to advertisement. Me and Orson Welles, for example, fell 62% from its disappointing debut the previous weekend, and is not delivering attractive returns for cinemas. Newcomers The Limits of Control and Unmade Beds landed feebly at Nos 29 and 37, behind veteran warhorses An Education and Bright Star. The White Ribbon is suspension in there for fans of austere European highbrow, but the nation’s City Screens and Curzons must surely be looking forward to the arrival of the strong awards contenders in January.
The future
Overall, 11-13 December was the third worst weekend of 2009, with just one film achieving £1m-plus takings, and a shocking dearth of strong commercial new releases. The reason, of run after, is the imminent arrival of Avatar on Thursday: the current flat market is the calm before the anticipated storm. Cameron’s movie is being given a saturation release on more than 1,000 screens, although discriminating cinemagoers will be trying to book into the 300 UK locations with digital 3D projection. Audiences will also be checking out Nine, from Chicago director Rob Marshall, and St Trinian’sitting 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold. Then, on Monday 21 December, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel arrives. Cinema chains have every reasonable expectation of a timely cash bonanza.
UK chief 10, 11-13 December
1. A Christmas Carol, £1,544,226 from 434 sites. Total: £16,030,083
2. Where the Wild Things Are, £883,990 from 491 sites (New)
3. Planet 51, £764,742 from 421 sites. Total: £2,537,718
4. Paranormal Activity, £758,704 from 399 sites. Total: £8,703,396
5. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, £750,227 from 458 sites. Total: £25,004,680
6. Nativity!, £667,663 from 405 sites. Total: £2,676,614
7. Law Abiding Citizen, £604,873 from 461 sites. Total: £4,731,175
8. 2012, £471,856 from 361 sites. Total: £18,674,864
9. The Box, £249,707 from 288 sites. Total: £1,011,735
10. A Serious Man, £1390,778 from 100 sites. Total: £1,335,999
How the other openers did
Carriers, 101 screens, £69,224
Rocket Singh: Salesman Of The Year, 35 screens, £67,389
The Stepfather, 80 screens, £40,056
The Red Shoes, 12 screens, £13,338
The Limits of Control, 10 screens, £10,318
Unmade Beds, 9 screens, £6,107
7 Husbands For Hurmuz, 2 screens, £3,606
Mascarades, 1 screen, £594
