The first weekend of the year starts well with practically every film in the top five having at least something to cheer about. Overall the box office pulled in $153 million, which is 24% less than last weekend; however, it's a post-holiday weekend, so that decline is understandable. Compared to the first weekend of 2008, 2009 is off to a great start up just shy of 10% over last year. And more importantly, last year got off to a great start, so we are looking at a fantastic start.

As expected, Marley & Me started 2009 the same way as it ended 2008, on top. Over the weekend, the film pulled in $24.26 million, which was a little lower than predicted, but it has still earned more than $100 million with a running total of $106.66 million after 11 days of release. Given the reported production budget, this film may have already shown a profit. It is well on its way to profitability.

Bedtime Stories placed second with $20.50 million over the weekend and $85.54 million in total. At this pace, the film will become the 26th film released in 2008 to reach $100 million by this time next week.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons matched expectations nearly perfectly with $18.69 million over the weekend and now has $79.30 million in total. It too should reach $100 million, but it might take a week longer to get there.

Valkyrie is a bigger hit than expected, and it is still aiming for $100 million in total. This weekend it added $14.09 million for a total of $60.74 million. Will it reach the century mark? I'm not sure, but it has a 50/50 chance at this point.

Yes Man did a little better than expected with $13.91 million over the weekend for a total of $79.51 million after three. This increases the odds or reaching $100 million substantially, which means 2008 could finish within one of the previous record of 29 $100 million films.

Moving onto the sophomore class, The Spirit earned $3.26 million over the weekend, which was down nearly 50% from its opening. Overall the film has made $17.74 million, which is on the very low end of expectations. Not quite a disaster, but close.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2009-01-06