Box Office - 'Marley' and Money on Christmas Day

It was a record day for Marley & Me on Christmas, as the Aniston-Wilson flick took in over $14 million on Thursday. In fact, the top three films released yesterday all set records for December 25th debuts, but it was really only good news for two of them. For Marley, it could help keep solvent the film career of Jennifer Aniston, which has never been as fully realized as most people predicted it would be. But a $50 million weekend, which this movie looks more than capable of hitting, would be a step in the right direction there. The biggest winner of all might be the second place finisher on Thursday, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It wasn't expected to be in the race for the weekend's top spot, but it jumped into the silver medal position with nearly $12 million. Because it also has the most to lose by finishing poorly, Button's $40 - $45 million weekend estimate will go a long way toward the film's profitability, and with this reaction coupled with a likely Oscar run, Button could be the biggest hit of all the awards movies. Bedtime Stories, which had been the projected weekend winner, only finished in third place on Christmas. It's still probably going to make over $40 million over four days, as well, but whether or not it has a lot of longterm life at the box office remains to be seen. Tom Cruise's Valkyrie earned over $8 million on Thursday, a solid number, but probably not enough to put the film on track to $100 million. Still, it's better than being The Spirit, which will be lucky to finish the weekend with over $15 million.

Comments

[D. D.]

Saw Valkyrie on Christmas Day- very, very good movie
Saw Doubt on December 27- fantastic movie; acting out of this world
Saw Curious Case of Benjamin Button today, December 28- the best of them all; a truly moving all around entertaining, well acted movie.

Great movie season so far- on my list- Revolutionary Road & Milk
Looking foward to Defiance, State of Play and maybe the Julia Roberts/Clive Owen movie in the New Year.

Happy Holidays everyone- go see Curious Case of BB! You'll be very satisfied.