Weekend Box Office

The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $42.5 million

The Blind Side - $40 million

2012 - $18 million

Old Dogs - $16.8 million

Disney's a Christmas Carol - $16 million

Ninja Assassin - $13 million

Planet 51 - $10 million

Precious - $7 million

The Fantastic Mr. Fox - $7 million

The Men Who Stare at Goats - $1.5 million

Not much changed over the Thanksgiving Day holiday as last week's number one and two films retained their positions, respectively, in the Box Office. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the sequel to the unbelievably successful 2008 teen-vampire film Twilight based on the books by Stephanie Meyer, retained it's number one spot but dropped 70% earning only $42 million, a far cry from it's $140 million opening the previous week. The pop-culture phenomenon, which cost only a purported $50 million, has now earned an amazing $230 million in just two weeks of release. However while the Sandra Bullock football film, The Blind Side based on the true story of NFL Offensive Lineman Michael Oher, was number two for a second week, it went up nearly 18% and earned an impressive $40 million, $5 million more than last week and $2.5 million shy of number one. The film, which cost a modest $29 million, to make has now earned an impressive $100 million in only it's second week in the box office.

The Roland Emerich directed disaster flick 2012, continues to destroy at the box office by holding strong at number three in its third week on the chart. The movie made an additional $18 million this weekend but slipped 31% from the previous week bringing it's total to only around $138, which is still considerably short of it's purported $200 million budget. The John Travolta/Robin Williams comedy Old Dogs came in forth on the list earning $16 million over the weekend. The film, which opened on Wednesday before the holiday has made a total of $24 million in it's first week and is well on it's way to earning back it's $35 million budget. And rounding out the top five, for the second week in a row was the Jim Carrey as Scrooge holiday film, Disney's a Christmas Carol, which made an additional $16 million, a rise in over 30% from last week for a total of $105.3 million in its forth week of release.

Not faring as well in the box office this week was the Joel Silver and Wachowski Brothers produced ninja action film, Ninja Assassin starring Korean pop singer Rain, which came in number six with only $13.1 million in it's first week. Despite excellent reviews the post-apocalyptic, father and son film The Road starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron also had a disappointing opening with only $1.5 million just shy of cracking the top ten. On the other hand, The Princess and the Frog, which is Disney's first hand-drawn animated musical in several years featuring the music of Randy Newman was released on Wednesday in only two theaters and has already made $1.14 million in it's first week of release. Me and Orson Welles starring teen-sensation Zac Efron also did well as it was only released in four theaters and made $16,200 per theater for a total of $64,800 for the weekend and $86,600 for the week.

Next weekend will see the holiday film season heat up with four highly anticipated releases. First, the Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne led heist film Armored. Also opening next week is the phycological thriller Brothers starring Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal as his brother who gets a little too friendly with wife, Natalie Portman, while he is off at war. Oscar season also heats up next week with Up In The Air from Juno director Jason Reitman starring George Clooney. Finally, just in time for the holidays is Everybody's Fine starring Robert De Niro as a father trying to reconnect with his grown children played by Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell. Check back in seven days to see who comes out on top at the box office next week.