Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

Four movies in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror genres premiered this past weekend, but none of them had stellar opening weekends. Robert Zemeckis’ early animated holiday release A Christmas Carol managed to grab the Number 1 slot at the Box Office for the weekend, but pulled in a lower tally than anticipated. The Jim Carey vehicle took in $30 million in its debut, but with a budget of $200 million it could run into some challenges trying to make it into the black during its theatrical release. At the Number 3 slot was the George Clooner starrer Men Who Star at Goats (I have not seen the movie, but I believe it contains genre elements). That movie pulled in $12.7 million but it has much less ground to make up to break even, based on its $25 million budget. The much publicized The Fourth Kind pulled in $12.2 million for its debut, as it only managed to rise to the Number 4 slot. And further down the list, The Box pulled in a somewhat disappointing $7.6 million and only made it up to the Number 6 slot.

Paranormal Activity finally seems to be losing some steam as it took a tumble down to the Number 5 slot after working its way up to Number 1 last weekend. Still, based on its paltry budget, that movie is a huge hit and rumors of a sequel have already begun to circulate. Where the Wild Things Are continues to slide off the charts and that one has only managed to amass a total of $69 million against a $100 million budget so far. Also on their way down are Astro Boy and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, neither of which are on target to recoup their budgets either.

Following are the results for all of the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies in the Top 20 for the weekend of November 6-8:

Title / Box Office Rank (Rank Prior Week) / Weekend Draw (Total)
1) A Christmas Carol (2009) – Prior Wk: New, Draw (Total): $30.05 MM ($30.05 MM)
3) The Men Who Stare at Goats – Prior Wk: New, Draw (Total): $12.71 MM ($12.71 MM)
4) The Fourth Kind – Prior Wk: New, Draw (Total): $12.23 MM ($12.23 MM)
5) Paranormal Activity – Prior Wk: 2, Draw (Total): $8.28 MM ($97.11 MM)
6) The Box – Prior Wk: New, Draw (Total): $7.57 MM ($7.57 MM)
9) Where the Wild Things Are – Prior Wk: 5, Draw (Total): $4.18 MM ($69.22 MM)
10) Astro Boy – Prior Wk: 7, Draw (Total): $2.63 MM ($15.11 MM)
11) Saw VI – Prior Wk: 6, Draw (Total): $2.03 MM ($26.25 MM)
15) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – Prior Wk: 11, Draw (Total): $1.32 MM ($121.03 MM)
16) Zombieland – Prior Wk: 12, Draw (Total): $1.3 MM ($73.51 MM)
17) Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant – Prior Wk: 9, Draw (Total): $1.14 MM ($12.99 MM)

Source: Box Office Mojo

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