Weekend Box Office: Audiences fail to show up to sequel to movie they hated

By Scott Tobias | December 12, 2011 | 3:12pm

Aux Features Film

Christmas could not come soon enough for Hollywood, which hit such a low point over the weekend that the top two movies at the box office, both new, could fairly be described as flops. After the mega-romantic comedy Valentine’s Day clawed its way over the $100 million mark, expectations were reasonable that its sequel, New Year’s Eve, would similarly cruise to nine figures. But Warner Brothers failed to factor in one crucial thing: Most people hated Valentine’s Day and would turn up to the sequel only as an alternative to anesthetic-free dental surgery. At $13.7 million, New Year’s Eve was slightly off the $56.3 million made by its predecessor on opening weekend, so don’t hold your breath until Casimir Pulaski Day comes out. The Sitter scored a lackluster $10 million for second, though that’s the healthier number of the two, given the disparity in budget. Everything else in the Top 10 finished under $8 million, though Arthur Christmas, with just a 10% drop, looks to be a reasonably steady earner, though still a flop in its own right.

The situation was much brighter in limited circles, as awards contenders continued to dominate. The Jason Reitman/Diablo Cody team-up Young Adult will likely not do Juno numbers, but a $40,000 per screen average on eight screens is a great start. Better still was the insane $75,250 per screen earned by Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the appropriately drrrrrryyyyyy adaptation of John le Carré’s espionage classic. Look for those two movies—plus The Artist, Shame, My Week With Marilyn, and other awards bait—to creep into the Top 10 in the coming weeks.