With Playing for Keeps being the only new wide release this weekend, the box office numbers were relatively low and only two movies crossed the $10 million mark. With that being said, it's great news for Skyfall, as it reclaimed the top spot in it's fifth week at the box office and has earned a total of $261.6 million since opening.
Looking at last weekend's results, we knew Skyfall taking first this weekend was a strong possibility because the Twilight movies are traditionally font loaded and Skyfall had strong ticket sales week-to-week. The Guillermo del Toro-produced Rise of the Guardians was the only other film to break the $10 million mark. The movie has been underperforming, so Dreamworks Animation must be at least a little bit happy to see it taking second place.
The box office slowdown will end next weekend, when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in 4,000+ screens. With it being available in 3D, we'd say the bump in 3D ticket prices could easily push it past the $72 million opening of The Return of the King. However, initial critic reaction has been mixed, and if the audience feels the same way, we could see slower ticket sales. Here are the top ten results for this weekend:
1. Skyfall - $11,000,000
2. Rise of the Guardians - $10,540,000
3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $9,200,000
4. Lincoln - $9,115,000
5. Life of Pi - $8,300,000
6. Playing for Keeps - $6,000,000
7. Wreck-It Ralph - $4,904,000
8. Red Dawn - $4,261,000
9. Flight - $3,130,000
10. Killing Them Softly - $2,748,000