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First look: ‘New Moon’ almost eclipsed by ‘Blind Side’ over Thanksgiving

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‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ is fading fast after its massive debut, while significantly more people are seeing ‘The Blind Side’ compared with its box-office performance last weekend.

Tickets sales in the U.S. and Canada for Summit Entertainment’s $50-million teen vampire drama plummeted 70% over the three-day weekend compared with a week ago, to a studio-estimated $42.5 million, demonstrating that interest among avid fans was heavily front-loaded and its box-office life is sure to be very short. Receipts for the first ‘Twilight’ picture dropped 62.2% on the same weekend last year. The larger decline this year indicates that although interest in the sequel has grown significantly from the original, a not insignificant percentage of the opening weekend growth for the sequel came from people who saw ‘Twilight’ later in its run last year but came out sooner for ‘New Moon.’

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The five-day domestic gross over the full holiday weekend for ‘New Moon’ was $66 million, and its total is now $230.7 million. At the same point last year, total box office for ‘Twilight’ was $119.7 million.

While ‘New Moon’ had the largest second-weekend drop of any movie this year, ‘The Blind Side’ went the opposite way. Its ticket sales rose 18%, the fourth-largest such increase ever for a movie playing at more than 3,000 theaters. Driven by extraordinary word of mouth after audiences gave the inspirational football drama starring Sandra Bullock an average grade of A-plus last weekend, ‘Blind Side’ took in $40.1 million over the three-day weekend and $57.5 million for five days, putting it surprisingly close to ‘New Moon.’ The total gross for the movie, which was financed by Alcon Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros., is $100.3 million.

None of the weekend’s three new movies in wide release proved particularly strong. The comedy ‘Old Dogs’ was another disappointment in a tough year for Walt Disney Studios at the box office, collecting just $16.8 million for the weekend and $24.1 million over five days. The very similar ‘Wild Hogs,’ which also starred John Travolta and was directed by Walt Becker, opened to $39.7 million in March 2007 without the benefit of most people being out of work and school on its first Friday.

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The martial arts flick ‘Ninja Assassin,’ financed by Dark Castle Entertainment and Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros., took in $13.1 million for the weekend and $21 million over five days, a decent start given its cost of just under $50 million. It’s expected to do very well overseas, particularly in Asia given the popularity of its star, South Korea’s Rain.

The stop-motion animated movie ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox,’ from 20th Century Fox, grossed a very weak $7 million for the weekend and $9.5 million since Wednesday. Including its solid results at four theaters the previous two weekends, the quirky adaptation of the Roald Dahl book directed by Wes Anderson has grossed $10.1 million. It cost about $35 million to produce.

Meanwhile, Disney’s hopes that ‘A Christmas Carol,’ which cost nearly $200 million to make, would play strong through the holidays after its weak start continued to come true. Ticket sales for the digital 3-D picture rose 30% over the weekend, even higher than the 24% rise for ‘The Polar Express’ in 2004, another 3-D holiday movie directed by Robert Zemeckis, whose performance the studio has been hoping to follow.

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In limited release, Disney’s ‘The Princess and the Frog’ opened to a massive $712,000 in just two theaters, a mix of high demand and inflated ticket prices for an experience that included several hours of activities beyond watching the new hand-drawn animated flick. Over five days it took in $1.1 million.

Weinstein Co. opened ‘The Road,’ financed by 2929 Entertainment for $25 million, to a so-so $1.5 million from 111 theaters. The five-day total is $2 million.

-- Ben Fritz

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