Box Office Update: Validation of a Fact

If the box office charts are a scale of the population's state of mind, then this year has been as singularly depressing as I've repeatedly said it is. This weekend seemed to be in the bag for "New Year's Eve" and "The Sitter", but the fact of the matter is that at this time of the year, people are more interested in seeing something that's actually good. The obvious brand of pandering comedies have done poorly in this month for the past several years. At this point, people are genuinely interested in seeing the films that are going to be Academy players in a couple of weeks.

Case in point? There's more interest to be found in the independent releases of this week. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" took in $300,000 this weekend out of four theaters. "Young Adult" brought in $320,000 from eight theaters, which isn't as strong a per theater average as its competitor, but the buzz has been decidedly laid back on this one. This isn't another Oscar play from Jason Reitman, and he's opted out of the circus altogether. And in the meantime, "A Dangerous Method", "The Artist", "My Week with Marilyn", and especially "Shame" have been surging strong in the wings. This weekend proved to be the lowest box office weekend for the entire year, but we're headed towards a more fruitful slate for the endgame of this year.

1. "New Year's Eve" (First Weekend; $13.7 million)

2. "The Sitter" (First Weekend; $10 million)

3. "Breaking Dawn" (Fourth Weekend; $7.9 million)

4. "The Muppets" (Third Weekend; $7.1 million)

5. "Arthur Christmas" (Third Weekend; $6.6 million)

6. "Hugo" (Third Weekend; $6.1 million)

7. "The Descendants" (Fourth Weekend; $4.4 million)

8. "Happy Feet Two" (Fourth Weekend; $3.8 million)

9. "Jack and Jill" (Fifth Weekend; $3.2 million)

10. "Immortals" (Fifth Weekend; $2.4 million)