Box Office Still Feeling The Christmases Spirit

Four Christmases was #1 for the second week in a row at the box office this weekend, taking in an estimated $18.1 million and bringing its domestic total to $70.8 million. Last weekend's #2 and #3 swapped places, with Twilight's $13.2 million finishing ahead of Bolt's $9.7 million.

The story of the historically slow weekend however was Punisher: Warzone coming in almost dead in the water with a paltry take of $4 million, way below industry projections. Even Transporter 3 finished ahead of Marvel's latest, with a $4.5 million bow.

Good news, however, remains with smaller specialty films. Frost/Nixon opened with $180,000 across 3 screens, for a second-highest-of-the-year per-screen average of $60,000. Milk and Slumdog Millionaire also continue to perform well, finishing with $1.7 million ($17,000 per-screen average) and $1.4 million ($18,000 per-screen average), respectively. Australia's $7 million take this weekend and Quantum of Solace's $6.6 million round out the top 5.

Despite the weak opening and poor reviews from critics, Punisher will look to bounce back next weekend as fan buzz of the film has been generally positive and its only new competition will be Fox's remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Check out Box Office Mojo for the full weekend chart.

Continued after the jump...

Four Christmases Wraps Up Weekend Box Office

The Vince Vaughn-Reese Witherspoon holiday comedy Four Christmases debuted at the number 1 spot over the Thanksgiving weekend, raking in a healthy $46.7 million over the five-day weekend.

Christmases grossed $31.6 million over the Friday-Sunday frame, while Baz Luhrmann's highly anticipated epic Australia opened at number 5 with $14.6 million from Friday-Sunday and $20 million over the full five days. Transporter 3, the other big opener this weekend, finished with the number 7 spot and $18.5 million from Wednesday through Sunday.

Disney's Bolt actually saw a 1% growth from last weekend, finishing very strongly at number 2 with $36 million for five days and $26.6 million for the weekend. Twilight easily crossed the $100 million mark with $39.5 million for five days and $26.4 million for the three days, winning the number 3 spot and a cumulative $119.6 million, but saw a 62% drop-off from last weekend.

Gus Van Sant's indie biopic Milk, starring Sean Penn, bowed with a healthy $1.38 million across 36 screens, and Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire continued to perform well with $1.36 million across 49 screens.

Box Office Mojo has the full weekend chart here.

Continued after the jump...