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In a stunning debut, New Moon blew away expectations by raking in a huge $140.7M to easily win the weekend. Do teenage girls ever flock to good movies? (Incidentally -- for those unfamiliar with the books -- the next films will feature Bella nearly being fucked to death and Jacob falling in love with a baby. Seriously.) Sports pic The Blind Side also topped early estimates, bringing in a robust $34.5M to place a strong second. After that it was last week's champ, the dreadful 2012 ($26.5M | $108.2M) and newcomer Planet 51 ($12.6M). Jim Carrey's so-so A Christmas Carol rounded out the top 5 ($12.2M | $79.7M).
Precious continued to be a strong performer as the lock for a Best Picture nomination gobbled up $11M ($21.4M). The drop from there was steep: the hilarious Men Who Stare at Goats only managed an extra $2.7M ($27.6M), just ahead of the mediocre Couples Retreat ($1.9M | $105M), the awful The Fourth Kind ($1.7M | $23.3M) and the resilient, pointless Law Abiding Citizen ($1.6M | $70M). In limited release, Broken Embraces soared to a $54,000 per theater average while Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans had a decent, if unspectacular start ($9519 per). Should have had more break-dancing. Seriously.
