PBCS Rankings: Why Didn't Hollywood Release Any Big New Movies Last Week?

What a lousy week for American moviegoers. Right when studios should be rolling out all kinds of new movies, we instead get treated to a weekend with NO major new releases. The only new movies to be found on the box office chart were Michael Fassbender's feel-bad sex movie "Shame" and "Sleeping Beauty," a movie about people who sleep with drugged hookers. WHEE! FUN! SO CHRISTMASSY! Seriously, people in Hollywood are weird. All the big movies this month have been smushed into the Christmas week window (because that totally means they'll win 97 Oscars), leaving this past week as barren as a February trip to the multiplex. As a result, every single movie in the top 12 at the box office slipped by at least 29% from last week. Here is the final box office chart via Box Office Mojo.

1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1" - $16.9M
2. "The Muppets" - $11.2M
3. "Hugo" - $7.6M
4. "Arthur Christmas" - $7.3M
5. "Happy Feet Two" - $6.0M
6. "Jack and Jill" - $5.5M
7. "The Descendants" - $5.2M
8. "Immortals" - $4.4M
9. "Tower Heist" - $4.1M
10. "Puss In Boots" - $3.1M

With no new titles in there, our PBCS standings from this week look a whole lot like our standings from last week. WATCH!

1. "The Descendants" - 454
2. "My Week With Marilyn" - 400
3. "The Muppets" - 81
4. "Hugo" - 67
5. "Tower Heist" - 19
6. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1" - 9
7. "Puss In Boots" - 8
7. (tie) "J. Edgar" - 8
9. "Immortals" - 7
10. "Happy Feet Two" - 4

Neither "Shame" nor "Sleeping Beauty" qualified for our rankings, since they failed to earn over a million bucks. Pity. If only MORE Americans liked depressing movies that make you hate sex! Anyway, George Clooney and Michelle Williams still dominate our rankings thanks to strong reviews and healthy per-screen averages, but they need to WATCH THEIR TUSHIES, because this week heralds the arrival of critical darlings "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and "We Need To Talk About Kevin," plus the holiday turdbomb that is "New Year's Eve." So don't expect things to stay like this forever. In the meantime, write to your local studio head to space these movies out. Only college football has worse scheduling.

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