The idea that lightning can strike in the same place twice took a hit over the weekend, with New Year’s Eve, the star-studded follow-up to Valentine’s Day, topping the US box ofice but with a very tepid $13.7 million. With a cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Lea Michele, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Hilary Swank and Seth Meyer, Warner Bros had been expecting it to make over $20 million, especially since it’s predecessor opened to $72 million 18 months ago.
Quite why Warner didn’t actually open the movie at New Year is still a bit of a mystery, as you’d have expected it to do better then.
New Year’s Eve wasn’t the only movie that was met with a giant ‘meh’ by US audiences, as the new Jonah Hill film The Sitter took $10 million to place second. It was about in line with not very high expectations.
While early December isn’t usually a great time at the box office, last weekend wasn’t just weak, it was the lowest grossing weekend overall since September 5th-7th 2008, showing just how weak things are at the moment – indeed many in Hollywood are wondering what’s happened to the audience. While cinemas had reason to cheer in the summer, the rest of the year has been pretty bad for them, and they’re now desperately hoping for a huge Christmas movie that’ll help save what could otherwise be a pretty dismal 12 months at the box office.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | New Year’s Eve | $13.7 | $13.7 |
| 2 | The Sitter | $10.0 | $10.0 |
| 3 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 | $7.9 | $259.5 |
| 4 | The Muppets | $7.0 | $65.8 |
| 5 | Arthur Christmas | $6.6 | $33.4 |
| 6 | Hugo | $6.1 | $33.4 |
| 7 | The Descendants | $4.8 | $23.6 |
| 8 | Happy Feet Two | $3.7 | $56.8 |
| 9 | Jack And Jill | $3.2 | $68.6 |
| 10 | Immortals | $2.4 | $79.8 |
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
It was quite an unusual week at the US box office, as no new movies at all made it into the top 10, with older film merely shifting around a little. Things remained exactly the same at the top though, with Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 in the number 1 slot, despite dropping 60% from last weekend to $16.9 million, while The Muppets stayed at number 2 with an $11.2 million weekend gross.
The question this weekend wasn’t whether Twilight: Breaking Dawn would have a good opening, it was just how big it would be. That question has now been answered with the latest in the series taking $139 million in its first three days in the US, and $283.5 million around the world. It’s the fifth biggest North American opening in history, but didn’t quite take the franchise record, which is still held by New Moon’s $142.8 million. It also scored the third biggest opening day gross ever, after the final Harry Potter and New Moon, taking $72 million in America on Friday.
The reviews for Immortals may not exactly have been kind (it currently stands at a rather measly 36% on Rotten Tomatoes), but there’s little doubt that there’s plenty of very pretty man-flesh on display. As in 300, the film shows us that ancient Greek time, men had an aversion to wearing clothes, and were all ridiculously buff! It may not be historically accurate, but it’s sure pretty. Immortals, starring future Superman Henry Cavill, alongside Kellan Lutz, Luke Evans, Mickey Rourke, and Stephen Dorff, is in cinemas now – but if you just fancy ogling the pecs, take a look below (click on the images to enlarge). 
Despite some rather stinging reviews, Immortals has gotten off to a pretty good start at the US box office with $32 million dollars. That may not be as much as the likes of 300 and Clash of The Titans, but still marks the biggest opening for a film not released by one of the six major studios since The Expendables.
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