In news that proves that notoriety isn’t as good as fame, but it’s heaps better than obscurity, Mel Gibson’s new film Apocalypto took the number one spot at the US box office this weekend, with a modest but good-enough $14.2 million take. The Mayan action movie held off a strong challenge by girly rom-com The Holiday in second place with $13.5 million, knocking those pesky penguins into third place after three weeks at the top.
Strangely, despite expectations that the audience for Apocalypto would be mostly male, couples made up a whopping 82% of the audience in an opening that’s in line with debuts like Braveheart, Alexander and The 13th Warrior – not stellar, but pretty good for a film in a language nobody speaks about guys in loincloths. Women, unsurprisingly, flocked to The Holiday to make up 65% of that audience. But Apocalypto’s gain was Blood Diamond’s loss, as the films had been aimed at similar audiences, so that Leo’s African adventure managed only $8.5 million. Studio executives admitted that that was less than they hoped, but confidently predicted that it will pick up momentum over the holidays and into awards season.
The two behemoths of recent weeks, Happy Feet and Casino Royale, slipped to third and fourth places respectively, although they’ve still done awfully well. While Happy Feet has won the US box office battle by a slim margin ($138 million to Bond’s $128 million), it’s all about Bond overseas, with the worldwide take a whopping $324million to Feet’s $179 million – even if the penguins have some countries left to conquer.
Apart from that, the news is largely about holiday movies, with Unaccompanied Minors, The Nativity Story, Deck the Halls and Santa Clause 3 dominating the rest of the top ten. Really, they’re the cinematic equivalent of candy cane. They appear once a year, no one quite knows why they like them, and they’re bad for your teeth. Still, they’ve contributed to a top ten that’s up on last year’s total, and that’s all it takes to keep industry types in a Christmassy mood.
Now, if you can bear to look…The Chart!
1
Apocalypto
$14,166,000
$14,166,000
1
2
The Holiday
$13,500,000
$13,500,000
1
3
Happy Feet
$12,718,000
$137,738,000
4
4
Casino Royale
$8,800,000
$128,894,000
4
5
Blood Diamond
$8,515,000
$8,515,000
1
6
Unaccompanied Minors
$6,205,000
$6,205,000
1
7
Deja Vu
$6,070,000
$53,046,000
3
8
The Nativity Story
$5,575,000
$15,769,000
2
9
Deck The Halls
$3,925,000
$30,076,000
3
10
Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
$3,311,000
$77,240,000
6