Happy Monday, Everyone.
Unless, of course, you’re a studio executive somehow connected to “New Year’s Eve.” You can go back to bed and pull the covers over your head.
Hollywood suffered its worst weekends in years over the weekend, with “New Year’s Eve,” the multi-star extravaganza getting off to an incredibly slow start, with just $13.7 million in tickets sold.
From BoxOffice Mojo, here’s the weekend by the numbers:
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count /Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
| 1 | N | New Year’s Eve | WB (NL) | $13,705,000 | – | 3,505 | – | $3,910 | $13,705,000 | – | 1 |
| 2 | N | The Sitter | Fox | $10,000,000 | – | 2,750 | – | $3,636 | $10,000,000 | – | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 | Sum. | $7,900,000 | -52.2% | 3,604 | -442 | $2,192 | $259,500,000 | $110 | 4 |
| 4 | 2 | The Muppets | BV | $7,073,000 | -36.2% | 3,328 | -112 | $2,125 | $65,837,000 | $45 | 3 |
| 5 | 4 | Arthur Christmas | Sony | $6,600,000 | -10.8% | 3,272 | -104 | $2,017 | $33,490,000 | – | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | Hugo | Par. | $6,125,000 | -19.0% | 2,608 | +768 | $2,349 | $33,489,000 | – | 3 |
| 7 | 7 | The Descendants | FoxS | $4,835,000 | +0.9% | 876 | +302 | $5,519 | $23,635,000 | – | 4 |
| 8 | 5 | Happy Feet Two | WB | $3,750,000 | -36.6% | 2,840 | -696 | $1,320 | $56,850,000 | – | 4 |
| 9 | 6 | Jack and Jill | Sony | $3,200,000 | -40.3% | 2,787 | -262 | $1,148 | $68,642,000 | $79 | 5 |
| 10 | 8 | Immortals | Rela. | $2,442,000 | -45.3% | 2,286 | -341 | $1,068 | $79,850,000 | $75 | 5 |
| 11 | 9 | Tower Heist | Uni. | $2,400,000 | -39.3% | 2,069 | -335 | $1,160 | $74,100,000 | $75 | 6 |
| 12 | 10 | Puss in Boots | P/DW | $1,655,000 | -45.6% | 1,843 | -907 | $898 | $141,900,000 | $130 | 7 |
In your Monday Must-Read, the New York Times takes a look at the English-language remake of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” a book that’s as sacred to mystery fans as “Gone with the Wind” is to romance addicts.
Here’s the nut graf:
“How protective Larsson fans felt about the books became apparent to him only while he was trying to cast the part of Salander, the key figure in the Millennium trilogy and the one on whom the whole franchise depends. Among the actresses considered, or endlessly blogged about, for the part were Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Carey Mulligan and Noomi Rapace, who played Salander very effectively in a 2009 Swedish adaptation of the trilogy.
“She’s one of those characters, like Jesus Christ, Dracula and Batman, that everyone has his own ideas about who should play them,” Mr. Fincher said, treating himself to a single martini and a meal that consisted mostly of salad. “All of a sudden I’m getting phone calls from people I respect saying, ‘You can’t possibly cast X, Y or Z.’
Read the full story here.
The Cineaste's Lament. 