Princess and the Frog Kisses Off Matt Damon

Old-school Disney toon tops weekend box office; Damon's Invictus looks OK in short shorts in third place

Sorry, hands. CGI is still king. 

The old-fashioned The Princess and the Frog grossed an old-fashioned $25 million Friday-Sunday, per estimates, a take more in line with Disney's last decade-old princess movie than its last computer-literate Pixar production.

Still, Princess rallied as the weekend rolled on and reigned in the box office standings, unseating Sandra Bullock's still strong The Blind Side ($15.5 million), and blocking the Clint Eastwood-Matt Damon rugby-powered drama, Invictus ($9.1 million).

Drilling down into the numbers to document the fall of New Moon and the rise of Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones:

• The Princess and the Frog did what it was expected to do, and, given its OK, $7 million Friday, even more. The overall gross, however, was more Mulan ($22.7 million—back in 1998) than Up ($68.1 million last May), or even the CGI-live-action hybrid, G-Force ($31.7 million last July). 

• The Blind Side, last weekend's champ, fell to No. 2, but basically held ground in ticket sales. After four weekends, the Bullock drama has taken in $150.2 million.

• New Moon slid two places, from second to fourth, and continued to see Twilight fever cool. Still, the monster love story is now the fifth highest-grossing movie of the year, and, at $267.4 million overall and counting, it should overtake The Hangover for fourth place. 

• You don't quibble over Eastwood's box office stats (his smallest wide-release opening since Blood Work, etc.). You stand there in awe that he keeps putting up box office stats worth quibbling over. And you point out that the $60 million movie is probably going to play on through Oscar season, Damon's short shorts or no.

• It looks like Brothers ($5 million, down nearly 50 percent from last weekend; $17.4 million overall) won't be the next first smash war hit of the war-torn 2000s.

• In the battle of the Oscar-buzz movies, Jackson's The Lovely Bones grossed $116,000 at three theaters, while the Mad Men-evoking A Single Man made $216,328 at nine theaters. The final score: Bones, which actually got buzz-killing reviews, unlike A Single Man, made more money per theater than any film reporting grosses.

• George Clooney's Up in the Air ($2.5 million) got closer to the Top 10, despite still playing at fewer than 100 theaters.

• In its third weekend, Zac Efron's Me and Orson Welles ($176,192) got nowhere near the Top 10, despite playing at only eight fewer theaters than Up in the Air.

• The Princess and the Frog would like to point out that, CGI or no, Planet 51 (2.3 million) was bounced from the Top 10 after three weekends, and after only $37.2 million overall.

• Also out of the Top 10, and after just one weekend: Robert De Niro's Everybody's Fine ($2.2 million; $7.4 million overall).

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

1. The Princess and the Frog, $25 million
2. The Blind Side, $15.5 million
3. Invictus, $9.1 million
4. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $8 million
5. Disney's A Christmas Carol, $6.9 million
6. Brothers, $5 million
7. 2012, $4.4 million
8. Old Dogs, $4.396 million
9. Armored, $3.5 million
10. Ninja Assassin, $2.7 million

(Originally published Dec. 13, 2009, at 9:24 a.m. PT)