LOS ANGELES (RushPRnews)01/01/09-Christmas was good to the folks in the movie biz and four of last week’s new releases landed in the top five. The Spirit, which the comic book geek in me was rooting for, took ninth for the weekend. For the totals I’ve listed both the weekend figures and the total since all of last week’s movies came out on Christmas day. Interestingly, Benjamin Button took the number three spot for the weekend but slightly outdid Bedtime Stories in overall numbers. Here’s the top five:
1. Marley and Me: $36.3 million ($50.7 million total)
2. Bedtime Stories: $27.4 million ($38 million total)
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: $26.8 million ($38.7 million total)
4. Valkyrie: $21 million ($29.5 million total)
5. Yes Man: $16.6 million
No new releases this time around, but we just had five of them last week so let’s not be greedy. Besides, the bumper crop from last week should have plenty of momentum to carry them through New Year’s weekend. I will go so far as to say next week’s top five will be a repeat of this week’s. Bedtime Stories and Benjamin Button were close, but Bedtime Stories is in about 700 more theaters, so I suspect the Adam Sandler comedy will hold its own. Here’s my prediction for next week:
1. Marley and Me
2. Bedtime Stories
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Valkyrie
5. Yes Man
It was a tough call with last week’s predictions. A lot of people — myself included — were pretty sure Bedtime Stories was what the public wanted for Christmas, but we underestimated the draw of Marley and Me’s shaggy dog story. While no one expected The Spirit to take top honors, some of us still expected it to land in the top five. Here’s how we all did:
1. Interjected: 13
2. Movie Pro: 11
2. Zach H.: 11
3. lostinafog: 9
3. Ray: 9
3. Zack: 9
4. Matt: 8
5. Alex Farquharson: 7
5. AJ Wiley: 7
6. Bradley: 6
7. Vera: 5
8. jessejames: 4
8. Gregory Rubinstein: 4
8. wendy: 4
Will the New Year’s weekend bring a shake up to the box office? You tell us. Post your predictions for the top five movies in the comments section below before 5:00PM Eastern Time on Friday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.
