Well, that didn't go as planned. Two high-profile films, the 3-D fantasy epic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and the romantic thriller "The Tourist," registered inauspicious openings as the overall box office trailed last year for the fifth weekend in a row.
Fox's "Dawn Treader," the third film in the franchise based on C.S. Lewis' beloved children's novels, led with $24.5 million, according to studio estimates.
That's a disappointing opening for a series whose first two entries, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian," debuted to $65.6 million and $55 million, respectively. "Dawn Treader's" opening gross puts it in a league that includes such other fantasy clunkers as "Eragon" and "The Golden Compass."
While box-office prognosticators were predicting a decline from prior "Narnia" movies, no one foresaw "Dawn Treader" stumbling this much. It's hard to decipher what went wrong.
According to a rep for a rival studio, Fox's marketing sold the $140 million movie as more of the same, instead of as a fresh take on the "Narnia" universe. But the film's outlook may not be as dreary as it initially seems.
For one thing, "Dawn Treader" scored an encouraging "A-" from CinemaScore audiences. And with the holiday season, Fox is quick to point out that the film is positioned for a marathon, not a sprint. "Its best days are ahead of us," says a studio rep.
"The Tourist" arrived via a Venetian gondola instead of a speeding water taxi.
Despite the star presence of Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, this remake of the 2005 French movie opened to a modest $17 million. With a budget north of $100 million, Sony now must hope the PG-13 thriller performs significantly better overseas.
In third place, Disney's animated musical "Tangled" slipped only 33 percent for $14.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $115.6 million.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1" didn't hold up as well, dropping 50 percent for $8.5 million. The PG-13 fantasy film has grossed a potent $257.7 million to date, although it trails all other Potter entries in estimated attendance. And the Denzel Washington runaway-train thriller "Unstoppable" dipped 37 percent for $3.8 million.
While many of the major Hollywood films were floundering, the indie scene thrived this weekend.
Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" expanded to 90 theaters and leaped to sixth place with $3.3 million, for an astounding per-theater average of $37,000. The psychological thriller starring Natalie Portman will expand to at least 800 theaters next weekend.
And the boxing drama "The Fighter," starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, slugged $320,000 from four theaters. That's an $80,000 per-theater average. Julie Taymor's "The Tempest," however, stirred as much interest in the moviegoing public as the Shakespearean play commonly stirs in ninth-graders. It took in just $45,000 from five theaters.
Check back next weekend as three new films -- "TRON: Legacy," "How Do You Know" and best picture-contender "Yogi Bear" -- open nationwide for your moviegoing consideration.
