Box Office - A Massive Global Debut for '2012'

It isn't just American audiences that love watching the end of the world: 2012 grossed an estimated $220 million this weekend worldwide, including a $65 million start in the US. That's good enough to be in the top 40 for the year in domestic dollars (already) and in the top 10 around the globe. On the international front, it has already outgrossed District 9, Watchmen, and Public Enemies...in three days. It's the ninth best worldwide debut in history.

That gives Sony one of the biggest hits of the year, and surprisingly enough, the studio didn't already have one. Coming into the weekend, its biggest film of 2009 was Paul Blart: Mall Cop, which isn't even among the top ten movies this year. That'll change now. There's a real chance for 2012 to break the bank to the tune of over $200 million in America, thanks to a bonus weekend at Thanksgiving, where most films won't see much of a slide from the previous frame. So by then, $150 million should be in the cards, with still a couple active weeks left.

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Box Office - '2012' Explodes for $24 Million Friday

It was a bigger-than-expected Friday for 2012, which should easily sail past our $50 million projection for the weekend. The last movie to do this kind of business on its opening day was Harry Potter, so the $24 million the disaster movie earned yesterday sets it up quite nicely for a great big haul over the next few days and on into December.

More than likely, 2012 will hit $60 million or more, demolishing - coincidentally enough - everything in its path. If the standard rule of thumb plays out here and the opening weekend reflects about 1/3 of the overall domestic box office, then 2012 should approach $200 million by the time it's all said and done. In any case, it should be well over $100 million by the end of next weekend, and probably near $150 million or so after the Thanksgiving holiday.

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Box Office - 'Precious' Sets Limited Release Record

The biggest news at the box office this weekend was the smallest movie. Taking a page out of the book of Paranormal Activity, the Oscar-hyped Precious set a theatrical record, averaging a whopping $100,000 per theater in its 18 locations. That's twice as much as Paranormal managed in its most productive per-screen weekend. And with no other Best Picture candidate in theaters for a month, this is just the beginning of a very healthy run for Precious. Its $1.8 million debut is the most money ever for a movie in so few theaters.

The official winner this weekend is A Christmas Carol. It should have done at least 20% better. A $31 million weekend is decent, and as we mentioned yesterday, it should do well between now and the end of the year because there's not much left for families, and it's so well known around the world that Disney will still make some cash. Could it have been released later in the month? Yeah, maybe, but as one of our astute readers pointed out in Saturday's box office discussion, it probably wouldn't have had a better start any other weekend through the end of the year. In Disney's corporate world view, though, it will be a boost to the company's fourth quarter. Isn't that what it's all about?

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Box Office - 'Christmas Carol' Takes Friday

A Christmas Carol is the widest-ever 3-D release and it again reinforces that studios are looking to capitalize on the new technology. A $9 million Friday won't hurt, although that shouldn't push the film above or even near most box office estimates for the weekend, anywhere between $37 - $42 million. More than likely, this will be a low-$30s, which isn't bad, given the powerful months ahead for the film nationwide and around the world. But it's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

It was a first-place start, though, and it will win the weekend without a lot of trouble, but it's lower start than director Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf, which you could certainly argue is less mainstream. There were a couple positive surprises, too. The Fourth Kind jumped out to a $5 million Friday, good enough for second place in a competitive weekend. I wrote on Thursday that if any of the new releases might be bound for a better finish, it would be the alien abduction thriller. So I was right about that, but wrong about The Men Who Stare at Goats, which placed an unexpected third with about $4.7 million. This Is It dropped to fourth place.

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Movie Review - 'The Men Who Stare at Goats'

The Men Who Stare at Goats Starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey Directed by Grant Heslov Rated R

It's a deviously warped story, the kind that has to be at least partially true, and according to the disclaimer at the beginning of the film, it is: "More of this is true that you would believe" replaces "Based on a true story" or "Inspired by a true story" in The Men Who Stare at Goats. And while it veers off the road from being true at some hard to define point, it's much easier to pin down where the movie itself drives into a ditch. And that's a shame, because Stare at Goats really does feel like it's heading somewhere. The story goes that journalist Jon Ronson picked up the scent of one of the military's biggest secrets. Back in the 1970s, Ronson learned, the Pentagon was developing a special kind of training program focused on psychic abilities. Rather than shooting guns and driving tanks, this new breed of soldier would fight the wars of the future with their minds. How far such a program advanced is hard to say, although through Ronson's writing and other sources, it's well documented that the military did explore a kind of psychological warfare. We blasted music into Manuel Noriega's stronghold, used the same methods (and worse) against inmates at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and the practice by the government of "seeing" events or individuals at great distances, called remote viewing, has been exposed through declassified documents. The title The Men Who Stare at Goats refers to a very particular psychic ability, and if you've seen the commercials or trailer, you know what happens if you stare at a goat the right way. In the film, a fictionalized Ronson named Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) has a chance encounter with Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), whom Wilton knows from previous research has some experience with a secret government outfit called the First Earth Batallion.

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