Just over a year ago, America shocked many doubters in electing a black president; now, the country has made the first Disney movie with an African-American protagonist the #1 movie in the country. We’ll leave history to judge which is the more significant achievement, but for now, The Princess And The Frog reigns supreme with a $25 million take in its first week in wide release. (Disney’s strategy of opening the film first in two theaters in major cities, as if it were the latest from Hou Hsiao-hsien and not from the dominant brand in children’s entertainment, appears to have paid off in some indiscernible way.) The week’s other wide release, Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, opened with a more modest $9 million haul, though that number could hold steady depending on word-of-mouth and the film’s performance during awards season.
In limited runs, Tom Ford’s acclaimed debut feature A Single Man ($24,000 per screen) and Peter Jackson’s not-so-acclaimed adaptation of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones ($39,000 per screen) both did well on a handful of screens. The former will be expand further during the holiday season, but the latter, in a sign of trouble, will not see wider release until January 15th, when the competition will have thinned out a bit. In brighter news, the Oscar favorite Up In The Air looked strong in Week Two, nearly cracking the Top 10 despite being on only 72 screens, with $34,000 on average. Provided the Avatar juggernaut doesn’t crush it, the film looks to perform well over Christmas.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.