Fan Fare

Blindsided at box offices by “The Blind Side”

Family films are in at box offices. There’s no doubt about it. Not only did football film “The Blind Side” make the unusual move of climbing up box office charts to No. 1 this past weekend (making its star Sandra Bullock happy), but “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” also rose one notch to No. 4. You can read our box office report at Reuters.com

But is it any wonder? It’s the holidays, and that means it’s time for families to hit theaters together. One knock on Hollywood’s holiday movie season is that there are few family films in theaters right now. That should bode well for Disney’s upcoming expansion of “The Princess and the Frog” as well as Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” But it could be bad news for adult-oriented dramas such as “The Lovely Bones” and musical “Nine”.

We’ll see what happens in the weeks to come. But for now, we were out at theaters again, talking about new releases, including “Everybody’s Fine,” “Brothers” (No. 3) and the highly-touted George Clooney movie “Up In the Air.” For a peak at what moviegoers had to say, click below.

(Reporting and video by Marc Price)

‘New Moon’ sinks fangs deeper into box office

(Reporting and video by Marc Price)

Vampire romance “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” took the top spot at North American box offices for the second straight weekend, sinking its fangs into ticket sales and drawing out $66 million over the 5-day U.S. Thanksgiving holiday ($42.5 million for the three days). It’s two-week total in the U.S. and Canada now stands at just under $231 million. Add to that an international haul of $243, and global sales hit $474 million.

Perhaps in this season of swine flu we have a new virus, “New Moon Flu,” which mostly women seem to get. It turns them into zombies (no disrespect, but it seemed appropriate when talking about movies with monsters) who then march into theaters.

But there are more films with broad appeal in theaters. Football movie “The Blind Side” and disaster flick “2012″ held up well to land at No. 2 and No. 3 on box office charts, respectively. You can read our box office report here.

Of new movies, Disney comedy “Old Dogs,” starring John Travolta and Robin Williams, was No. 4 which was likely a disappointment given the star power of Travolta and Williams. But those guys are getting up there and younger movie fans seem more tuned-in to the youthful stars of “New Moon” — Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (pictured above). That said, there’s a young star in “Old Dogs,” too, Seth Green. He’s featured prominently on the movie’s poster. (Maybe they should’ve given him some fangs).

Similarly, martial arts flick “Ninja Assassin” debuted a few notches down the chart at No. 6. We’re not really sure why. Dictionaries define ninjas as skilled saboteur assassins who wear all black. And we thought, “hey, that sounds like everybody in showbiz.” So it should have played well, right?

Oscar hopeful, apocalyptic drama “The Road” also debuted over the weekend and animated film “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which features the voice of George Clooney and has earned generally good reviews, expanded wider in theaters. And in a nod to upcoming romantic comedy “Did You Hear About the Morgans,” we spent our Thanksgiving with a family of Morgans in the Hollywood Hills. To see what they had to say about holiday movies — along with fans outside theaters — click below.

Sandra Bullock scores touchdown at box office

It’s been a wild year at the box office for Sandra Bullock, whose report card this decade has been middling at best.

The actress, 45, returned to theaters for the first time in more than two years in June with the romantic comedy “The Proposal,” which went on to become the biggest film of her career (before accounting for inflation), with $164 million in domestic ticket sales. But then came her September stinker, “All About Steve,” which was one of her weakest entries with $34 million in ticket sales. She is pictured at the premiere of the latter film, looking happier than she should have been.

Bullock bounced back this weekend with the sports drama “The Blind Side,” which kicked off with $34.5 million, a personal best. The opening was good enough for a distant No. 2 behind “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” ($140.7 million, but who’s counting?).

Critics and fans embraced the fact-based saga of a Tennessee housewife who takes in a homeless black teenager and turns him into a football hero. John Lee Hancock (“The Rookie”) directed from an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.” It scored a 70 percent positive rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 30 percent for the “Twilight” sequel. Exit polling conducted by CinemaScore gave it an exceedingly rare A-plus across all demographics. There’s even talk of an Oscar nod, which would be a first for the two-time Golden Globe nominee.

“The Blind Side” was produced for $29 million by Alcon Entertainment, which specializes in female-skewing fare like the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” movies. The company is financed by FedEx Corp Chairman Frederick W. Smith, and it has a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.

Bullock cut her undisclosed fee to star in the film, but will share in the profits. “She’ll make quite a bit of money on the movie,” said Broderick Johnson, who runs Alcon with Andrew Kosove.

Johnson predicted the movie would enjoy “a remarkable run” in North America, and reach the $150 million level. But how will it play overseas? American sports dramas have limited foreign appeal, and so the marketing will emphasize the human-interest side. The strategy seemed to work in North America, where women accounted for 55 percent of the audience. Johnson said the international rollout will be worked out next week, but it would likely be spearheaded by launches in the Bullock strongholds of Britain and Germany (her late mother’s homeland).