This was one of those relatively rare weekends when horror, fantasy, and science fiction did not dominated the box office, mostly because no new titles were released. The one Borderland genre item, YEAR ONE, made its debut in over North American 3000 theatres; the prehistoric comedy, which stars Jack Black and Michael Cera, earned an okay $20.2-million, landing in fourth place. Apparently, Sony Pictures’ promotional campaign for backfired by misrepresenting the film in order to hide the film’s satirical approach to the Old Testament; a little controversy might have boosted those numbers.
As for returning cinefantastique…
UP dropped down from #2 to #3 in its fourth weekend, earning $21.3-million, $152.9-million total.
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN was in sixth place, down from fourth, with $7.3-million, $155.9-million total.
START TREK stayed steady at #7, earning $4.7-million for a $239.4-million total.
LAND OF THE LOST petrified in eighth place, three slots lower than the previous week, earning $3.98-million, for a three-week total of $43.7-million.
IMAGINE THAT fell from sixth to ninth place in its second weekend, adding $3.1-million to a miserable two-week total of $11.4-million.
TERMINATOR SALVATION stomped into tenth place, down from #8. $3.1-million in ticket sales raised the five-week total to $119.5-million.
ANGELS & DEMONS dropped out of the Top Ten, landing at #11 with $2.8-million for a six-week total of $128.1-million – not bad but well below the $217.5-million of 2006’s THE DA VINCI CODE.
DRAG ME TO HELL all left the Top Ten, descending to twelfth place, where it earned $1.9-million. That raised the four-week total to $39.2-million. That puts the film just about even with THE UNBORN ($42-million U.S. total) but well behind THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT ($55.4-million) in terms of horror film box office performance for 2009.
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