The same trio of films that dominated the box office last week, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Alvin and the Chipmunks and I Am Legend, did so once again as the domestic box office continued its December rally with the top 10 films earning $158.1 million, which beats 2006's total for the final week of the year by 18%. None of the top three films declined by more than 20.4% (Book of Secrets) and together they accounted for nearly 60% of the top ten total.
The top new film of the week, Fox's comic book-based Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, earned $10 million, which was good enough for sixth place on the weekend chart -- but the movie, which opened with special 'Midnight Mass-acre' showings on Christmas Eve, has already brought in $26 million. Surely this must be one of the few films that earned more money in its first week during its weekday showings rather than over its first weekend -- something that testifies to the potency of the ad campaign that Fox ran that brought hardcore fans into the theaters during the film's first days of release and also, quite possibly, that word-of-mouth was not sufficiently positive to sustain strong attendance through the weekend. The R-rated Requiem's six-day total was well below that of the first PG-rated Alien vs. Predator film, which brought in $38.3 million during its 3-day weekend bow in August of 2004.
Sony's Loch Ness fantasy, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep finished in seventh place just behind AvP: Requiem with an estimated total of $9.2 million, but averaged only a mediocre $3,318 per venue at 2,772 theaters.
Meanwhile the other major current fantasy release, New Line's The Golden Compass actually increased its weekend gross by nearly 10% in spite of the fact that it lost nearly a third of its theaters, providing an indication that it just might do well on DVD.
Sony's