U.S Box Office Report - 1st - 3rd December 2006

1. Happy Feet - $17M - $121M
2. Casino Royale - $15.1M - $115.8M
3. Deja Vu - $11M - $44M
4. The Nativity Story - $8M - $8M
5. Deck the Halls - $6.6M - $24.9M
6. The Santa Clause 3 - $5M - $73.1M
7. Borat: - $4.8M - $116.3M0
8. Turistas - $3.5M - $3.5M
9. Stranger Than Fiction - $3.4M - $36.9M
10. National Lampoon: The Rise of Taj - $2.2M - $2.2M
 
Happy Feet & Casino Royale both crossed the $100M mark this week, and like last week, Bond bested Happy Feet every day except for Saturday, when Happy Feet pulled ahead again. Bond actually performed better on a percentage drop basis but there's not really much in it at the end of the day - both films are doing very well and this is their third solid weekend in the top two spots. Casino Royale now sits at $244M in the worldwide box office stakes. Happy Feet has recouped its production budget based on its US takings. Casino Royale is still well on track to be the most successful James Bond movie of the franchise.

Deja Vu drops 46% of business from last weekend and won't see a repeat of the business done by the last Washington film, The Inside Man (Finishing on $82M). Still, the film opened best of any of the new thanksgiving releases and should finish up around $70M, just shy of its production budget.

Our first new entry is a curious one. The Nativity Story is an almost controversy free telling of the "The Most Famous Story" of all time. Even the Pope has seen and approved it (only this and The Dirty Sanchez movie have gotten that kind of approval this year). Sunday box office is usually a little less than Saturday but estimates for The Nativity Story might not be accurate with a fair few church groups block-booking screenings for Sunday afternoon. When final numbers are released on Monday we might see The Nativity Story clear $10M.

Deck The Halls has a not bad second weekend but is hardly on course to become a big Christmas movie. Thanksgiving weekend was its big shot and with that out of the way it faces competition from not only new movies but also Christmas shoppers (something that can be levelled at all the movies though). With four new movies opening next weekend (two of which are potentially Christmas themed) the movie will have its work cut out for it. Expect this one to finish up with around $45M. It's no Surviving Christmas for sure ($11M) but it's certainly no Christmas With The Kranks ($73M) either. The Santa Clause 3 saw an increase last weekend thanks to the holiday but loses 50% of that business this time around. I'd estimate one more weekend in the top ten.

Borat continues to impress and could well become the biggest grossing comedy of the year. While its shine has started to wear off (this is its fifth weekend on the charts) it's blessed with being the only straight comedy in the top ten.

Turistas, the latest teens being tortured movie, opens at a disappointing eight. A trailer launch on Myspace but little advertising in the standard channels probably hasn't gained the movie the sort of awareness that similar movies such as Hostel gained, but it was made cheaply and only released on 1500 screens. It'll go unrated on DVD and probably make a tidy profit. This was the first release for the newly formed Fox Atomic label that'll release The Hills Have Eyes 2 next March.

Stranger Than Fiction sits at nine and has its last weekend on the charts. The movie scored some great reviews and had equally good word of mouth, but it's faced a lot of competition and Ferrell's usual market may have been turned off by the "straightness" of it. If Ferrel can do a movie like this every few then he'll build himself a good all round audience. No one can deny that Jim Carrey struggled a little when he switched genres.

Finally, rounding out the top ten is National Lampoon: The Rise of Taj, the perhaps ill-conceived sequel to Van Wilder, a movie that wasn't too big a success to begin with. Seeing the popularity of a supporting character and running with it doesn't always work, even with star Kal Penn's cult success of Harold & Kumar to ride on. Expect a speedy DVD release.

Last week's flop, The Pick of Destiny, hasn't listed numbers this week but there's little chance of it being in the top 15. Elsewhere The Fountain dropped to 13.