Teen vampire romancer TWILIGHT handily won the weekend box office with $69.6M for Summit Ent. (vfx by Amalgamated Pixels, CIS Vancouver, Gentle Giant Studios, ILM, Lola Visual Effects and Rez-Illusion). Per VARIETY, it's the highest opening ever for a female director (Catherine Hardwicke).
Sony's QUANTUM OF SOLACE dropped to $26.7M in its second week out, placing second. With vfx by Double Negative, Framestore, MK12, Machine and MPC. In the U.S., the James Bond film has earned $108.8M so far. Through Sunday, the film's worldwide gross stands at $418M.
Disney's animated BOLT opened low in third with $26.2M. Fourth place went to Paramount/DreamWorks Animation's MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA with $15.7M and has a three-week cume of $137.1M.
Fifth place went to Universal comedy ROLE MODELS with $7.3M and $48.13M in three weeks. Universal's Clint Eastwood-directed drama CHANGELING (vfx by CIS Vancouver and Pac Title) placed sixth with $2.7M and a five-week gross of $31.67M.
Disney's cable TV crossover HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR placed seventh with $2.05M and a five week total of $86.86M.
Holocaust drama THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS (Miramax) jumped from 19th to eighth place with $1.673M as it added 368 theaters in its third week out, with a total gross of $2.63M.
Weinstein's Kevin Smith comedy ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO came in ninth place with $1.605M and $29.26M in four weeks.
Tenth place went to THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES (Fox Searchlight) with $1.26M and a six week gross of $35.64M.
In animation, Disney-Pixar's WALL-E earned $134,989 and has a 22 week cume of $223.5M. MGM's animated IGOR earned $41,327 in its tenth week out, with a total gross of $19.1M. Warner Bros.' re-issue of THE POLAR EXPRESS in IMAX earned $40,428 in 11 theaters in its first week out. Summit Ent.'s FLY ME TO THE MOON made another $33,876 and over 15 weeks has earned $12.3M. SPACE CHIMPS (Fox) made $4,019 and $30.1M in 19 weeks. IFC's FEARS OF THE DARK made $2,718 in three theaters for a five-week gross of $63,172. Disney's TIM BURTON'S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS IN 3-D earned $967 and in five weeks has made $1.1M.
Box office information from BoxOfficeMojo.com.
