Support for LAist comes from
We Explain L.A.
Stay Connected

Share This

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts and Entertainment

Box Office Review: A Precious Weekend!

Support your source for local news!
Today, put a dollar value on the trustworthy reporting you rely on all year long. The local news you read here every day is crafted for you, but right now, we need your help to keep it going. In these uncertain times, your support is even more important. We can't hold those in power accountable and uplift voices from the community without your partnership. Thank you.

While Disney's A Christmas Carol won the weekend with an underwhelming $31M, the real story at the box-office was Precious. The darling of this year's Sundance Film Festival earned an astonishing $100,000 per theater, breaking the record for the largest opening EVER for a specialty film (A Christmas Carol, by contrast, earned a little over $8400 per venue). Michael Jackson's This Is It had a solid second weekend ($14M | $57.8M), just topping the fantastic The Men Who Stare at Goats ($13.3M) and the weird and phony The Fourth Kind ($12.5M). Not surprisingly, Paranormal Activity continued to print money ($8.6M | $97.4M).

The second half of the top 10 was led by the disappointing The Box ($7.8M). After that it was all hold-overs: the mediocre Couples Retreat ($6.4M | $95.9M), the rote Law Abiding Citizen ($6.1M | $60.8M), the superb Where the Wild Things Are ($4.2M | $69.2M) and the boring Astro Boy ($2.5M | $15M). In non-Precious limited release news, La Danse: Le Ballet de L'Opera de Paris ($14,000 per theater) and Splinterheads ($12,000 per) both enjoyed solid debuts. That Evening Sun didn't perform as well as hoped ($8900), possibly dooming the nascent Oscar bid of the wonderful Hal Holbrook. Let's hope not.

Most Read