March Of The Penguins

Happy Feet [with $42.3 million] takes out Bond for the top spot!

Casino Royale added $40.6 to its already impressive worldwide haul--but it wasn't enough for the actioner to outwit a pack of dancing penguins...

Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo makes it seem as though the 2 films ended the weekend in some sort of "tie" by posting this for his Weekend Report:

'Happy Feet' and 'Casino Royale' were neck-and-neck over the weekend, each banking over $40 million....

If you want to call a separation of more than almost 2 million between them"neck and neck" OK --But to me anything that passes a million dollar difference is not a "tie"

Get more Mojo here

Here's Ian Mohr of Variety with a few more details:

A cadre of singing and dancing penguins beat out the monkey-suited international superspy James Bond at the B.O. this weekend, as Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow's CG-animated "Happy Feet" skipped to No. 1 with $42.3 million thanks to a particularly strong Saturday run.

Bond's No. 2 finish in Sony/MGM's "Casino Royale" with $40.6 million -- the second-best opening ever for a 007 pic -- helped spur a particularly strong pre-Thanksgiving sesh as the holiday season took flight.

As of Friday night, Bond looked to be in the driver's seat, with numbers approaching $16 million as core fans rushed to theaters. But "Feet" gained solid ground during matinee runs on Saturday. Come Sunday morning, the race looked almost too close to call, and some experts had the two pics separated by as little as $200,000 until Warners and Sony came out with estimates.

"Feet," "Casino" and Fox's strong-holding No. 3, "Borat," helped B.O. for the top 10 pics over the frame gross $129 million, up from last week's $106 million.

After two weekends as a commanding No. 1 finisher, Sacha Baron Cohen brainchild "Borat" saw its first stiff competish as the holiday movie season got in full gear. Standing solid in No. 3, pic dropped 49%, lifting cume to more than $90 million. Laffer scored a per-screen average of $5,496 at 2,611 playdates.

Frame's other wide studio rollout, Universal comedy "Let's Go to Prison" got locked out of the top 10 altogether. Pic bowed at No. 12, with an incriminating $2.1 million from 1,410 engagements.

Bond was playing on 3,434, while "Feet" danced on 3,804, which gave the secret agent a slightly higher per-engagement average despite the No. 2 finish.

With kids making up more than 40% of the "Feet" aud, pic was punching a higher number of lower ticket prices. Imax screenings helped "Feet" gain an edge as the large-screen version played to $2.4 million...

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Finally, Joshua Rich of Entertainment Weekly has posted his latest weekend wrap-up:

"Happy Feet" debuts with slightly more than "Casino Royale"

Had the Bond flick not had a running time of almost 2 and a half hours--it probably would have held on to win. Longer running times mean fewer show times and since Borat at #3 with over 24 million] is still doing well 007 met his match in the U.S.