ENCHANTED has surprised me. Not only has it being incredibly well reviewed (92% on Rotten Tomatoes) but it’s taken home a cool $35.3 million on it’s opening weekend and as we approach the festive season, it seemed more universally acceptable to audiences than THE MIST and HITMAN.

Disney’s combination of live action and animation, along with it’s classic fairytale tone and it’s ‘knowing’ of stereotypes in the genre played mostly to the film’s surprising success.

Coming in at second and continuing the family fun theme was THIS CHRISTMAS, Preston A. Whitmore’s movie about a family getting together for Christmas for the first time in four years which was made on a $13 million budget has already made a profit with a $18.6 million opening weekend.

BEOWULF is still attracting audiences at third, but it’s still very much in the red. Another $16.2 million taking put’s the live action motion capture fantasy movie to a $104 million WORLWIDE, which is still $50 million short of it’s budget! Ouch. There just ain’t no way that movie will make a significant profit. Two years of hard work and very little return for this technology which is still finding it’s ground in the industry.

HITMAN’s quiet $14 million and fourth place opening is probably about right for a movie that has terribly been handled by Fox. The film that I always thought had a terrific chance of being a rare financially successful and critically worthwhile film is just another video game to cinema screen translation that has been messed up.

Frank Darabont’s third Stephen King adaptation THE MIST has completely failed to find an audience. Unlike the adaptation of King’s 1408 which suprisingly hit the top of the box office this summer, THE MIST had to settle for a small $9 million opening  though it should make back it’s estimated $17 million budget.

source – imdb