Wknd B.O.: ‘Frog’ Kisses $25M; ‘Blind Side’ 2nd, Passes $150M

Warner’s Clint Eastwood-directed “Invictus” comes in even lower than modest pre-release estimates at $9.1 million

Disney is enjoying its best box-office performance for a hand-drawn animated feature in about a decade, with “The Princess and the Frog” leading in domestic ticket sales with an estimated $25 million this weekend while expanding into 3,434 theaters, according to studio estimates.

Disney’s best traditionally animated result since 2000’s “Dinosaur” also garnered a rare “A” CinemaScore grade.

Meanwhile, not even its own studio can slow down the seemingly tireless legs of “The Blind Side,” with the Sandra Bullock football film declining only 25 percent from its third weekend, taking in another $15.5 million to bring its four-week domestic total to $150.2 million.

The big “Blind Side” performance overshadowed the premiere of another Warner sports movie, the Clint Eastwood-directed South African rugby/post-Apartheid-era film “Invictus,” which came in even below modest pre-release estimates at $9.1 million.

Meanwhile, with Paramount opening it in only three theaters, Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” took in $43,000. And Weinstein’s Tom Ford directorial debut “A Single Man” made $62,000 at nine locations.

So it went amid an overall box office that was down about 2 percent from last week’s tepid post-Thanksgiving weekend total, but was up 5 percent from the same weekend a year prior.

For his part, Warner distribution president Dan Fellman said he expected “Blind Side” to drop about 40 percent week to week, and has now adjusted his end-game domestic projection for the Alcon Entertainment-produced film from $200 million to the $220 million/$230 million range.

“It’s reached a much broader audience now,” Fellman said. “It’s playing really well in small towns, for instance. It’s just got a head of steam on it.”

Fellman insists that steam wasn’t taken away this weekend from “Invictus,” a $60 million movie starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, that like pretty much everything else released this time of year, is vying for awards attention.

“ ‘Invictus’ is playing to a totally different crowd,” said Fellman, noting that 69 percent of its audience is age 30 or older — an audience demographic that “Blind Side” has long since broadened out of, he insisted. “The reviews are outstanding, and so is the word of mouth. Results-wise, the movie falls into the same area as ‘Mystic River’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby.’”

However, unlike “Invictus,” both of those previous Eastwood-directed films first enjoyed a successful limited release window, before expanding to a greater box office total ($10.4 million for 2003’s “Mystic River” and $12.3 million for 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby’).

Still, Fellman noted, “We’re pleased with this opening. With the Golden Globes coming up and all the year-end accolades, I think we’re well positioned to come into the lucrative Christmas holiday with $20 million already in our pockets.”

Meanwhile, finishing in fourth place while declining 50 percent from its third weekend, Summit Entertainment’s “Twilight Saga: New Moon” took in another $8 million to bring its four-week domestic total to $267.4 million. With foreign total tabulation still pending, “New Moon” is looking to pass the $600 million mark globally by the end of the weekend.

Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” dropped only 12 percent while finishing in fifth place with $6.9 million. It’s six-week domestic total stands at $124.5 million. Produced for a reported $200 million, Robert Zemeckis’ motion-capture-made Charles Dickens adaptation, which stars Jim Carrey, had $118.2 million in foreign receipts coming into the weekend.

In sixth place, Lionsgate ensemble drama “Brothers” took in $5 million in its second weekend, a 48 percent week-to-week decline. The $26 million film, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman, has grossed $17.4 million.

In eighth place, Sony’s “2012” took in $4.4 million domestically this weekend. The movie also became the most profitable overseas effort for Sony over the weekend, surpassing $556 million in foreign gross. The Roland Emmerich-directed movie has now grossed $711 million globally.

Finishing just out of the top 10 while enjoying a modest expansion into 72 theaters, Paramount’s “Up in the Air” took in $658,000. That result didn’t match the $79,000-per-theater average the Jason Reitman-directed/George Clooney-starring film generated last weekend, but meets Paramount’s objectives as the studio looks to take the awards-aspiring film wide on Christmas.

For its part, Miramax ensemble drama remake “Everybody’s Fine” is not fine in terms of red ink, with its second-week total coming in at just $674,000. The film stars Robert DeNiro, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale, and ran a reported $21 million to make.It’s two-week total stands at $7.4 million.

Finally, completely out of the top 20 only one week after an inexplicably wide release (1,007 theaters), independent horror comedy “Transylmania” made $131,000 at 118 theaters. Last weekend, its premiere gross of $262,000 rendered the film the worst opener ever for a movie starting out in more than 1,000 theaters.

“It was a charming little movie, it should have had more appeal. I don’t know why it didn’t,” noted producer Jor Van Kline, calling TheWrap from overseas Sunday morning.

More happily for Disney, “The Princess and the Frog” became its studio’s most successful hand-drawn animated effort since 2000’s “Dinosaur” opened to $38.9 million.

The Walt Disney Animation Studios title, which had played impressively the last two weeks at two locations in New York and Los Angeles, also garnered a not-that-common “A” CinemaScore grade. It’s only the third film this year to do that — Disney/Pixar’s “Up” and “Blind Side” were the others.

According to Disney distribution president Chuck Viane, the studio is looking to catch the majority of “Frog’s” box-office flies during the Christmas holiday, where it’s only significant competition should be Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks” sequel.

Meanwhile, for “Frog” directors Ron Clements and John Musker, the result represents a bit of redemption. After all, it was their $140 million 2002 effort “Treasure Planet” which originally put Disney’s traditional-animation business on the rocks in the first place, with the film only grossing $109.6 million worldwide.

It took just one more hand-drawn bomb — 2004’s “Home on the Range,” which took in $104 million globally on a budget of $100 million — before Disney ponied up for Pixar and was pretty much out of the traditional toon business all together.

“Disney and Pixar went out of their way to beat the hand-drawn movie to death, but now they’re releasing one?” noted one rival-studio distribution president Thursday. “That’s a real head-scratcher.”

Here’s how the top 10 at the domestic box office shaped up this weekend:

The Princess and the Frog ($25.0 mil.)
Invictus ($9.1 mil.)
Twilight Saga: New Moon ($8.0 mil.)
A Christmas Carol ($6.9 mil.)
Brothers ($5.0 mil.)
2012 ($4.4 mil.)
Old Dogs ($4.4 mil.)
Armored ($3.5 mil.)
Ninja Assassin ($2.7 mil.)

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