Day the Earth Stood Still Opens No. 1, but Twilight Scores an Even Bigger Number

Keanu Reeves sci-fi remake has okay box-office debut; Twilight reaches $150 million overall

Twilight hit a milestone. Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep rocked the (art) house. And, oh, yes, The Day the Earth Stood Still opened No. 1.

The Keanu Reeves-led sci-fi remake debuted with a weekend-best $31 million, per box office estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations, but barely lived up to modest expectations.

"It's really one of those in-betweeners," Box Office Mojo's Brandon Gray said today. "Not really a success, but not really a failure, either."

Other films had more clear-cut wins:

• In its fourth weekend, Twilight ($8 million) hit the $150 million mark overall.
• In its third weekend, Four Christmases ($13.3 million) saw ticket sales drop by a remarkably slim margin from last weekend—only 21 percent.
• Eastwood's Gran Torino ($284,000), starring, directed by and scored by the 78-year-old wunderkind, ruled all Oscar contenders (and all films) in limited release, averaging $47,333 at each of its six theaters. (The Day the Earth Stood Still averaged a so-so $8,708.)
  
• Another debuting Oscar hopeful, Doubt ($525,000) starring Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, averaged $35,002 at each of its 15 theaters.
• Fellow Best Picture contender Frost/Nixon ($630,240) moved up to 39 theaters, and saw business jump 249 percent from last weekend.
  

Looking at more of the weekend results:

• On one hand, The Day the Earth Stood Still was Hollywood's lowest-grossing No. 1 debut since Max Payne.
  
• On the other hand, the movie only cost its studio $80 million, a pittance for an alien-invasion blowout.
• Last year at this time, Hollywood didn't need "on the other hand" scenarios. It needed a truck to scoop up all the money made by I Am Legend, which debuted with $77.2 million, and Alvin and the Chipmunks, which opened with $44.3 million.
• Milk ($2.6 million) was the highest-grossing Oscar hopeful—if you don't count Bolt ($7.5 million) and its possible Best Original Song nominee, Miley Cyrus.
  
• Fresh off the Golden Globe nominations, Slumdog Milionaire ($2.2 million) added 91 theaters, and just missed making the Top 10.
  
• Michelle Williams' economic-downer drama Wendy and Lucy ($18,000) averaged $9,000 from its two screens.
• Golden Globe Best Drama nominee The Reader ($170,000) rated $21,250 off each of its eight screens.
• Steven Soderbergh's Che, the first of the filmmaker's two-part biopic about the revolutionary, hasn't done much in the pre-Oscar races, but it performed like a champ in its debut, pulling in $55,000 in two theaters, for a $27,500 per-screen average.
  

Here's a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. The Day the Earth Stood Still, $31 million
2. Four Christmases, $13.3 million
3. Twilight, $8 million
4. Bolt, $7.5 million
5. Australia, $4.3 million
6. Quantum of Solace, $3.8 milliion
7. Nothing Like the Holidays, $3.5 million
8. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, $3.3 million
9. Milk, $2.6 million
10. Transporter 3, $2.3 million