Lionsgate’s Punisher reboot flopped as Four Christmases topped the box office charts for the second weekend in a row.  The Vince Vaughn/Reese Witherspoon comedy dropping just 41.1% and earning an estimated $18.1 million.  The vampire romance Twilight continues to show great legs, moving up to the #2 spot with an estimated take of $13.1 million during its third weekend.  After performing the rare feat of earning more in its second weekend of its release than it did in its debut, Disney’s Bolt declined a precipitous 63.3% and finished third with a disappointing $9.7 million.  The next four spots all went to holdovers, Australia, Quantum of Solace, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and Transporter 3.  Altogether the leftover titles performed well enough to raise the weekend total some 6% over the post-turkey day frame in 2007.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): Dec. 5 - 7, 2008:

The holdovers didn’t get much help from the three new films that debuted.  In spite of opening in 2,508 theaters, Lionsgate’s “makeover” of its only Marvel live action property, Punisher: War Zone earned a mere $4 million--posting a hugely disappointing $1,595 per theater average.  Lionsgate’s first Punisher film, which starred Thomas Jane and John Travolta and opened in a similar number of theaters in 2004, earned $13.4 million, a performance that led Variety analysts Ben Fritz and Dave Mcnary to predict on Thursday that “Punisher: War Zone is looking at a tight race with the second weekend of Four Christmases and the third of Bolt and Twilight. All four pics will likely land in the teens.”  Rubbing salt in the Punisher’s R-rated wounds was the fact that it was beaten by another Lionsgate’s action pic, Transporter 3, which opened last weekend--don’t ask why Lionsgate chose to open two R-rated action flicks targeting the same young male demographic on successive weekends.

Sony’s Cadillac Records outperformed Punisher: War Zone on per theater basis, earning an average of $5,102, but since it was only in 686 venues, it earned only an estimated $3.5 million.  The other newcomer was Freestyle’s drama Nobel Son, which could only manage a pathetic $415 per theater average from 893 theaters.