Weekend Box Office

1) The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $140 million

2) The Blind Side - $34.5 million

3) 2012 - $26.5 million

4) Planet 51 - $12.6 million

5) Disney's a Christmas Carol - $12.2 million

6) Precious - $11 million

7) The Men Who Stare at Goats - $2.7 million

8) Couples Retreat - $1.9 million

9) The Fourth Kind - $1.7 million

10) Law Abiding Citizen - $1.6 million

The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which is the sequel to the ridiculously successful 2008 teen-vampire film Twilight based on the books by Stephanie Meyer, took a real big bite out of its competition this weekend to take the number one spot in the box office. The film, which was released on 4,024 screens made an amazing $34,965 per screen for a record setting $140 million opening weekend total, putting it third in all time opening weekend tallies right behind The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3, respectively. However the Sandra Bullock football film, The Blind Side based on the true story of NFL Offensive Lineman Michael Oher, served well as counter-programming as it made $11,096 per screen on 3,110 screens for an impressive $34.5 million opening weekend at the box office.

Last week's number one film, the Roland Emerich directed disaster flick 2012, slipped two places to number three in its second week on the charts. The movie made an additional $26 million this weekend bringing it's total to around $108 million a little over half of its purported $200 million budget. The last of this weeks new releases to break the top five was the reverse-alien-invasion animated movie Planet 51, which made $4,152 per its 3,035 screens for an opening weekend total of $12.6 million. Rounding out the top five this week was the Jim Carrey as Scrooge holiday film, Disney's a Christmas Carol, which made an additional $12.2 million for a total of $79.7 million in its third week of release.

This week's big winner in limited release was the Pedro Almodovar directed Broken Embraces starring Penelope Cruz which made an outstanding $54,000 per each of its two theaters for a total of $108,000 in its opening weekend. Although it dropped 25.2% in its second week, Wes Anderson's animated version of author Roald Dahl's celebrated children's book The Fantastic Mr. Fox starring George Clooney and Meryl Streep continues to do well in limited release, making an additional $199,000 for a total of $558,000 before the film begins a wider release next week. However, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, a not-a-remake of the 1992 Harvey Keitel film Bad Lieutenant, this time starring Nicolas Cage as the bad cop was unable to find its place with audiences earning only $9,519 per its twenty-seven theaters for a disappointing opening weekend total of only $257,000.

Next weekend will see three new films enter into wide release over the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Disney will be releasing two big movies for the holiday weekend beginning with its first hand-drawn animated musical in several years, The Princess and the Frog, featuring the music of Randy Newman and the parental comedy, Old Dogs, starring Robin Williams and John Travolta. Also in wide release next week is the Joel Silver and Wachowski Brothers produced ninja action film, Ninja Assassin starring Korean pop singer Rain. Opening in limited release next week is the post-apocalyptic, father and son film The Road starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron, Me and Orson Welles starring teen-sensation Zac Efron and director Rebecca Miller's new film The Private Lives of Pippa Lee starring Robin Wright and Blake Lively. Check back in seven days to see who comes out on top at the box office next week.