This week, the box office performance in the Northern America slumped to the lowest point of the year. With only US$ 13.7 million in hand, the ensemble-cast romantic movie, 'New Year's Eve' leads this week's weak field ahead of Jonah Hill's 'The Sitter' which opens at second. 'New Year's Eve' failed to capitalize the opportunity to go stronger despite having famous stars in it. The Garry Marshall-directed romantic comedy failed even harder when compared to the director's last effort 'Valentine's Day' which grossed four times the amount this one made. To make it three-strikes, the movie was critically slammed and could possibly ended up been one of the worst of the year.
Opening in second place was Jonah Hill's first solo headlining title 'The Sitter'. The R-rated comedy about a man babysitting three wealthy kids did less impact on the box office, which was kind of predicted. It grossed an estimated US$10M from 2,750 playdates for a soft $3,636 average. 20th Century Fox Studio research showed that 53% of the audience was 25 and up while males and females were evenly split. The movie is the latest R-rated comedy to fail to hit the mid-teen-millions range, with this slump dating back all the way to The Change-Up at the beginning of August.
Three-time champions 'Breaking Dawn' fell two notch to third, grossing US$ 7.9 million, followed by other Thanskgiving holders. On the limited release, two major releases opened to solid numbers. 'Young Adult', the latest by Jason Reitman opened at US$320,000 from 8 screens. British espionage sensational 'Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy' opened to a much stronger US$301,000 from only 4 locations. Full chart coming up as the rest of the week's box office looks like this and is based on studio's estimated data:
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross ($) | Change (%) | Total Gross ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NEW YEAR'S EVE | 13,705,000 | -69.6 | 13,705,000 |
| 2 | THE SITTER | 10,000,000 | NEW | 10,000,000 |
| 3 | THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 | 7,900,000 | -52.2 | 259,500,000 |
| 4 | THE MUPPETS | 7,073,000 | -36.2 | 65,837,000 |
| 5 | ARTHUR CHRISTMAS | 6,600,000 | -10.8 | 33,490,000 |
| 6 | HUGO | 6,125,000 | -19.0 | 33,489,000 |
| 7 | THE DESCENDANTS | 4,835,000 | +0.9 | 23,635,000 |
| 8 | HAPPY FEET TWO | 3,750,000 | -36.6 | 56,850,000 |
| 9 | JACK AND JILL | 3,200,000 | -40.3 | 68,642,000 |
| 10 | IMMORTALS | 2,442,000 | -45.3 | 79,850,000 |
| 11 | TOWER HEIST | 2,400,000 | -39.3 | 74,100,000 |
| 12 | PUSS IN BOOTS | 1,655,000 | -45.6 | 141,900,000 |