With studios clamoring to release their most commercially promising films in time for Thanksgiving, the weekend after the holiday was bound to be a letdown, but this year, the slump was even worse than usual. For one, The Warriors Way—a martial arts laugher that wasn’t screened for critics—was given the wide berth generally afforded to your Iron Mans or Batmans, but a clear field only won it a ninth-place finish with $3 million. After narrowing losing to Harry Potter 7.1 on its opening weekend, Disney animated movie Tangled finally switched places at the top, taking $21.5 million to the rapidly falling Potter’s $16.7 million. The results were soured further by news that the previous month was the worst November for attendance in 15 years, so expect those egregious 3-D surcharges to get even more egregious to make up for it.
In this environment, Fox Searchlight may be regretting not going bigger with Darren Aronofsky’s dark ballet odyssey Black Swan, which earned a stunning $77,400 per screen on 18 screens, nearly enough to crack the Top 10. Results were also relatively strong for the long-delayed Jim Carrey-Ewan McGregor black comedy I Love You Phillip Morris ($18,800 per screen) and All Good Things, a ripped-from-the-headlines psychodrama starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Capturing The Friedmans’ Andrew Jarecki. It earned an even $20,000 per screen.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.