Disney’s A Christmas Carol Scares Up $31 Million

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 8, 2009

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Here are my thoughts on what happened this weekend at the box office, with Disney’s A Christmas Carol leading the way at $31 million.

I know the $31 million is lower than some people thought it would do, and Nikki Finke was freaking out this weekend with headlines bashing Jim Carrey and implying he had another flop on his hands, but to be honest most movies would kill for a showing like this.

I think the main reason it didn’t make it up to $40 million had a lot to do with the fact that it was released the week after Halloween and not at the usual times that these Christmas movies are released (ie. Thanksgiving). I guess they were going after the post-Halloween fright crowd with the darker subject matter and so on — but who’s kidding who, here. This is a Christmas movie and the Disney folks were simply hoping Christmas would come early.

The other new releases did about as well as could be expected, though The Box could really have done better. And really, I thought The Men Who Stare at Goats did pretty well considering it’s an Oscar season movie and the rest of it. I expect it to do steady business over the next few weeks.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It may have opened more modestly than expected but its business has been steady, and its $14 million haul is only a 39.7 percent drop from a week ago. All in all, not too shabby.

Uh, Paranormal Activity’s gross is up to $97 million domestic and it should hit $100 million within days.

That’s pretty much it. The box office results are as follows:

  1. A Christmas Carol (2009)-  $31,000,000
  2. Michael Jackson’s This Is It – $14,000,000
  3. The Men Who Stare at Goats – $13,309,000
  4. The Fourth Kind – $12,521,000
  5. Paranormal Activity – $8,600,000
  6. The Box – $7,855,000
  7. Couples Retreat – $6,428,000
  8. Law Abiding Citizen – $6,172,000
  9. Where the Wild Things Are – $4,225,000
  10. Astro Boy – $2,588,00

That is all for now — back with more later this week with another edition of the Reject Report!


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  • I think A Christmas Carol is really going to pick up buisness come December.
  • The English dialect was difficult for our seven year old to understand and it was very scary to him. Most of the movie was really creepy; not the joyful movie I was hoping for. Then there was a scene, Scrooge looking to his future at his funeral, men talking about his death and his money, a
    wealthy man takes a vile from his pocket then "sniff sniff..." Am I missing something? Because it seemed reminicent of the movie "Cruel Intentions" There are a couple cuss words direct from the original book, referring to Scrooge. Finally, a toast with shots using cordials. I consider myself reasonable and not easily offended, but children are different and it's a Disney movie. Help me if I'm missing something...?
  • I am 35 year old graduate. I am only one son of my parents. My father was a business man, he lost big money in his business and Bankrupt in 1986, that time I was in high school. Bank officials harrased him very cruely , they took legal steps to my father and post aution sale for our house and he suffered mental agony and died of heart attack on 1990. After my father death my mother faced many obstacles, now she is an arthritis patient, she cant walk with out anyones help. The last 19 years I have been fighting legally with bank, I lost all my hard earned money, now I am big zero and struggling for my daily needs. Now they are going to sale my house by auction for US$ 60,000.00. I don’t know where I can go with my mother? I am asking only one dollar per person, that the cost of your bed coffee or cigar (you can donate as much as you can). My paypal id is forrysakki@rediffmail.com or use the below link
    By Sakki
  • You're right, this movie has come out a little earlier than most Christmas movies do. A chance that didn't quite work out to their advantage. However I think it's possible that they will have consistent numbers during the holidays and continue to make money from this film. The animation looks amazing, and the vocal work will make this movie amazing. Jim Carey puts such emotion into all of the characters he's played and I have confidence that he will portray that through his voice as well.
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