Monday Movie Box Office Recap - One Hell of a Weekend

Holy hell was it a good weekend for box office totals. While the recession seems to be hitting other areas of entertainment, movie grosses have remained strong over the past few months. Coming in at number one was the vampire tween spectacle that is "Twilight"! The movie based on the young adult series that follows the life of Bella and her vampire suitor pulled in $70.6 million, making this one of the highest grossing opening weekends this year. Three quarters of the audience for Twilight were of the female persuasion, no shock there, but what was interesting that almost 50% of the audience was at least 25 years or older. I guess the puritanical outlook on romance and limited sexual interaction between any of the characters, courtesy of Mormon author of the series Stephenie Meyer, did actually get a lot of people’s hearts pumping. The movie, which was made for actually half the amount of the weekend gross, has proven that marketing campaigns and teenage girls can be the only thing that makes a movie a success. There is a sequel in the works, based on the second novel in the series New Moon, and hopefully from the reviews, a bit more direction and money can be pumped into this to make this a successful franchise. This movie has propelled the careers of the two stars, Kristen Stewart, a Rising Star nominee here almost TWO YEARS AGO! and Robert Pattinson, to already crazy status and has lead to fan frenzy at malls, premieres and anywhere else these two can be found. I made sure to stay away from this vampire frenzy at all costs, since I do not plan on reading the books nor seeing the movies. I do wonder what execs who passed up on the film, like those from MTV Paramount, are thinking about now and if they are kicking themselves for not shelling out some small beans to get their hands in the blood sucking pie?

And don’t think that it was only teenage girls at the theaters this weekend. Quantum of Solace, the second Bond flick to star Daniel Craig, remained strong with a near $30 Million draw this weekend. Surprisingly, Bolt, the animated tale of a superstar dog, starring the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus, did not do anywhere near as the industry expected. The Disney flick pulled in $27 Million, which is not a great start at the box office totals for an animated film (I blame John and his bad toupee). Rounding out the remainder of the top five was another animated film, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, with $16 Million and Role Models, the comedy that shows why you should step out of your comfort zone, which pulled in $7.2 Million.

Here is the rest of the Box Office Top ten, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
1. Twilight - $70.6 million
2. Quantum of Solace - $27.4 million
3. Bolt - $27 million
4. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - $16 million
5. Role Models - $7.2 million
6. Changeling - $2.6 million
7. High School Musical 3: Senior Year - $2 million
8. Zack and Miri Make a Porno - $1.7 million
9. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - $1.7 million
10. The Secret Life of Bees - $1.3 million