Competition

Twilight Tops Box Office (Again)

Blind Side bolstered by word of mouth.

Have the Twihards had their fill? Ticket sales for the massively successful Twilight sequel New Moon dropped by 70 percent this week and the film took in an additional $42.5 million. The teen favorite was nearly overtaken by Sandra Bullock’s new film The Blind Side, which grossed $40.1 million over the three-day weekend and saw a remarkable increase of 18 percent. Both films opened last weekend, but Blind Side slowly built word of mouth while New Moon was met with endless anticipation and opening weekend crowds. New Moon has already grossed over $230 million in its first two weeks of release, compared to $119 million in the same time period for the first film. Old Dogs, starring John Travolta, had a poor showing, while Ninja Assassin took in $21 million over five days—pretty decent numbers compared to its $50 million budget. And Disney’s The Princess and the Frog took in an astounding $712,000 in just two theaters, signaling a return to hand-drawn animation is just what Mickey’s studio was looking for.