Harry's "Goblet" Threepeats

Who would have thunk it: Harry Potter is way hotter than Charlize Theron.

At least at the multiplex.

For the third straight weekend. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire dominated the box office, conjuring up $19.9 million, per studio figures Monday, to bring its domestic gross to $229.3 million (and $330 million worldwide) and kicking the butt of Theron's Aeon Flux.

The animé-inspired action flick was the lone major new entry in this traditionally slow post-Thanksgiving weekend. Based on a series of MTV shorts about a black-tressed female assassin, the flick made headlines during filming when its Oscar-winning star injured her neck performing a stunt. Things got worse from there: Paramount declined to screen the film for critics--those who managed to review it were perplexed by the muddled plot--and audiences failed to fill seats. The PG-13 Aeon Flux managed just $12.7 million, not an auspicious start for a something that reportedly cost around $60 million to produce.

However, the studio insisted that the opening was at the high end of expectation and noted that the movie played strongly with young males--a demographic that usually doesn't pay attention to reviews and is the prime market for action-babe DVDs.

Walk the Line continued to run up big business. The Johnny Cash biopic slid one spot to third place with $9.5 million in ticket sales, bringing its three-week gross to $68.3 million.

Among the new films in limited release, Transamerica was the champ in per-screen average. The R-rated Weinstein Co. release, in which Emmy-winning Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman plays a pre-op transsexual on a road trip, averaged $23,454 at just two theaters for $46,908.

The Boys of Baraka, an unrated Think Film documentary about troubled inner city kids from Baltimore relocated to a school in rural Kenya in hope of inspiring them, earned solid grades in its opening week. The film took in $9,705 at one site over the weekend and has grossed $12,800 since unspooling Wednesday.

But the snowboarding documentary First Descent did a face plant, averaging just $1,805 per site at 243 theaters for a total of $438,615.

Easily the top earner in limited release was Syriana. Adding four screens in its second week to play at nine total, Warners' R-rated oil industry conspiracy thriller averaged $57,935 for a total of $521,420 to bring its tally to $1.3 million.

The per-site average for Warners' Harry Potter adventure was $5,152 at 3,858 locations. Aeon Flux averaged $4,855 at 2,608 locations. Walk the Line averaged $3017 at 3,160 movie houses.

The drop-off rate for last weekend's openers was fairly sharp.

The most dismal was Usher's crime caper In the Mix, which fell 58 percent, earning $1.9 million in 10th place. Audiences also vacated Rent--the musical fell 56 percent from fifth to seventh place with $4.4 million. And business for the crime comedy The Ice Harvest melted 54 percent to $1.7 million in 11th. The family comedy Yours, Mine & Ours lost 53 percent, falling from third to fourth place with $8.3 million.

But the romantic comedy Just Friends held up fairly well, losing just 39 percent of its opening business and actually moving up from sixth to fifth place with $5.6 million

The overall gross for the top 12 movies was $76.5 million, down 3 percent from this time last year, when National Treasure was tops.

Here's a rundown of the top 10, based on studio tallies compiled by box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations:

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, $19.9 million
2. Aeon Flux, $12.7 million
3. Walk the Line, $9.5 million
4. Yours, Mine & Ours, $8.3 million
5. Just Friends, $5.6 million
6. Pride & Prejudice, $4.6 million
7. Rent, $4.44 million
8. Chicken Little, $4.41 million
9. Derailed, $2.3 million
10. In the Mix, $1.9 million

(Originally published Dec. 4, 2005 at 1:05 p.m. PT.)