‘Express’: The little engine that could?

Now in its fifth week, “The Polar Express” keeps chugging along, and the Tom Hanks-Robert Zemeckis computer-animated movie has accumulated $110 million -- and counting. It grossed an estimated $9.8 million over the weekend in fourth place, posting the strongest hold among the top dozen films, with business dropping only 9.2% from the prior weekend as other films were off 32% or more.

The movie, which cost an estimated $170 million to produce and opened with $23.3 million against the second weekend of “The Incredibles,” has never been No. 1, but has performed strongly enough to remain in the top five, and last weekend it moved ahead of the Pixar-Disney blockbuster. The movie’s midweek performance also continues to be quite strong, Warner distribution president Dan Fellman pointed out; it has frequently been the No. 2 movie on Monday through Thursday.

With half the nation’s schoolkids out for the holidays by a week from today and the rest to follow quickly, “we’re extremely well-positioned,” Fellman said.

Observers initially skeptical of the movie’s chances predicted that the film’s only hope of success would be to hold on through Christmas, and that’s precisely what it appears to be doing.

*

R. Kinsey Lowe