Another "Enchanted" weekend for U.S. box office
By Carl DiOrio
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Disney family romance "Enchanted" will likely reign at the North American box office for a second weekend, even as the overall market suffers from a somewhat disappointing fall.
The only wide new entry is "Awake," an MGM romantic thriller starring Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba, which should open a few million dollars either side of $10 million. Early reviews have been a bit iffy, but "Awake" targets a youthful audience and should prove fairly critic-resistant.
"Enchanted," meanwhile, will be looking for a three-day haul of about $17 million. Amy Adams stars as a cartoon princess who comes to life in modern-day New York. The film made $34 million last weekend, with Wednesday-Thursday Thanksgiving business driving the haul to $49 million.
Perhaps the bigger issue is whether patrons remain hungry for moviegoing. Nine of the past 10 weekends have underperformed the year-ago periods.
The decline has started to knock the stuffing out of 2007's year-to-date industry gains. A torrid summer build on solid successes with sequels and other popcorn fare by Labor Day had shaped an 8% uptick compared with the same portion of 2006.
That has been cut to a 5% year-to-date improvement after fall moviegoers collectively rejected a crush of adult-targeted titles, such as "The Kingdom," "Gone Baby Gone" and "Lions for Lambs," and even youth-oriented genres like horror films like "Saw IV" showed signs of fatigue. The recently dreary domestic receipts have industryites wondering whether holiday comparisons will help or hurt the situation.
Besides "Enchanted," other films entering their second weekends include the seasonal drama "This Christmas," which opened at No. 2 last weekend with a three-day haul of $18 million built primarily on black support. Its challenge will be to find crossover support.
The video game adaptation "Hitman" could struggle to reach a 50% hold of its fourth-place $13.2 million bow, given the fleeting box office loyalties of its core youth base. And the horror film "The Mist" debuted with just $8.9 million, offering scant reason for optimism about its playability -- though older patrons for the Stephen King adaptation could still show up late for the party.
The high-profile animated actioner "Beowulf" enters its third weekend, toting a $56.6 million tally and more than $150 million in production costs.
This time last year, "The Nativity Story" was the top new opener with $7.8 million and "Happy Feet" finished at No. 1 with $17.5 million during its third session.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
