It looks like the tradition of the Vince Vaughn annual Christmas movie is about to be set in stone, as the big man's second effort in two years, Four Christmases, holds on to the top spot at the US box office for a second week with $18.2million. The best any of the new releases could manage was a very disappointing eighth place from Punisher: War Zone, with $4 million dollars making it the worst opening ever for a Marvel film: yes, worse than Howard the Duck.
Elsewhere there were steep drops all around in the traditionally quiet post-Thanksgiving weekend, with kids animation like Bolt and Madagascar 2 seeing sharp drops of over 60%, as did the action men in Quantum of Solace and Transporter 3. Australia had a less sharp fall, but still only managed $7million, putting it on $30million in two weeks, a disappointing start for the epic.
The only really good news out there was among the award-baiters being released in limited runs and racking up huge per-screen numbers as savvy audiences pack in to see what all the fuss is about. Frost/Nixon had an astonishing per-screen average of $60,000 (but then it was only on three screens this week), while Gus Van Sant's Milk and Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire missed out on the top ten by a hair in their second and fourth weeks on release respectively.
The confirmed figures are due out later today, but in the meantime head over to Box Office Mojo for all the latest charts.