New Year's Eve is the spiritual successor to last year's Valentine's Day, a saccharine holiday love-fest that opened to more than $56 million and went on to gross $110.4 million domestically. Seeking to replicate that film's success in as formulaic a manner as possible, New Line Cinema brought back director Garry Marshall and screenwriter Katherine Fugate, along with returning actors Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Biel.
With seemingly every actor in the world to appeal to any and every possible demographic and a profitable predecessor, expectations for New Year's Eve were certainly well above the estimated $13.7 million that the film earned over the weekend. That, you'll note, is a significantly smaller debut than Valentine's Day, but that film opened on its actual namesake, meaning it was bound to flame out more immediately, while New Year's Eve could theoretically build over the next several weeks. Still, with the heavy hitters on their way, New Year's Eve looks fairly unlikely to make it to New Year's Eve.
Expectations were considerably lower for the week's other new wide release, the R-rated Adventures in Babysitting-style comedy The Sitter. Projections had the film bringing in around $13 million, but its estimated haul is $10.0 million. Pineapple Express, the first big comedy from David Gordon Green, an indie auteur known for George Washington and Snow Angels, opened $23.2 million back in 2008, while his last effort, Your Highness, debuted to a considerably less robust $9.3 million in April of this year. The Sitter marked the first major comedy marketed pretty much solely around star Jonah Hill, and its debut was lower than his co-lead films like Superbad and Get Him to the Greek.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn finally ended its dominance of the Stateside box office, declining 52% from last weekend at $7.9 million, bringing its domestic total to $259.5 million. That makes Breaking Dawn the third biggest movie of 2011, having now surpassed The Hangover Part II. It stands behind Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, in second and first, respectively. Globally, the penultimate installment in the Twilight franchise has now amassed a whopping $633.5 million.
Overall, this was the second-worst box office weekend of the year, but there was plenty of good news for those films that are sure to be in play during awards season. Alexander Payne's The Descendants expanded into about 300 additional theaters and jumped up from last week, bringing its total so far to $23.6 million. The Artist, meanwhile, earned an estimated $292,000 in just 16 theaters. Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody's Young Adult pulled in an estimated $320,000 in its limited opening on eight screens. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy earned $301,000 on just in just four locations, though, for a spectacular per-screen average of $75,184.
Here are the top releases of the weekend according to current estimates:
1. New Year's Eve $13.7 million New Release
2. The Sitter $10.0 million New Release
3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 $7.9 million $259.5 million
4. The Muppets $7.0 million $65.8 million
5. Arthur Christmas $6.6 million $33.4 million
6. Hugo $6.1 million $33.4 million
7. The Descendants $4.8 million $23.6 million
8. Happy Feet Two $3.7 million $56.8 million
9. Jack and Jill $3.2 million $68.6 million
10. Immortals $2.4 million $79.8 million
For wide releases, the upcoming weekend will offer Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, while Carnage and Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel both debut in limited release.
*Patton Oswalt on the Famous Bowl:
