Your Weekend Box Office

Rise of the Guardians moves toward the $100 million plateau, even as it drops to the bottom rung of the Top Ten.

1. The Hobbit (MGM/Wwarner Bros) Week 3 [Runs 4,100] PG13
Friday $10.7M, Est Weekend $32.9M, Est Cume $222.7M

2. Django Unchained (Sony/Weinstein) Week 1 [Runs 3,010] R
Friday $9.6M, Est Weekend $28.4M, Est Cume $61.8M

3. Les Misérables (Working Title/Universal) Week 1 [Runs 2,814] PG13
Friday $9.4M, Est Weekend $28.6M, Est Cume $68.0M

4. Parental Guidance (Walden/Fox) Week 1 [Runs 3,367] PG
Friday $5.0M, Est Weekend $15.3M, Est Cume $30.1M

5. Jack Reacher (Skydance/Paramount) Week 2 [Runs 3,352] PG13
Friday $4.5M, Est Weekend $13.2M, Est Cume $43.8M

6. This Is 40 (Universal) Week 2 [Runs 2,914] R
Friday $4.1M, Est Weekend $12.7M, Est Cume $36.7M

7. Lincoln (DreamWorks/Fox/Disney) Week 8 [Runs 1,966] PG13
Friday $2.3M, Est Weekend $7.5M, Est Cume $129.9M

8. Monsters Inc 3D (Pixar/Disney) Week 2 [Runs 2,618] G
Friday $2.2M, Est Weekend $6.5M, Est Cume $16.7M

9. The Guilt Trip (Skydance/Paramount) Week 2 [Runs 2,431] PG13
Friday $2.0M, Est Weekend $6.7M, Est Cume $21.1M

10. Rise Of The Guardians (DWA/Par) Week 5 [Runs 3,031]
Friday $1.7M, Est Weekend $5.3M, Est Cume $90.6M ...

And Monsters, Inc. 3D is (apparently) not going to be raking in the long green like Lion King 3D .

Meantime, BO Mojo has a dandy comparison chart between Guardians and Life of Pi. One is live action, of course, but there's a host of similarities between them.

Life of Pi -- gross: $82.1 million
Rise of the Guardians -- gross: $87.3 million

Both were released on the same date. Both have lots of cg animation (the tiger is almost totally computer generated.) Both cost north of $120 million.

But Pi is considered a more resounding success than Guardians. This goes to what we'll call "common Hollywood wisdom:" Life of Pi is performing well compared to other Ang Lee pictures; Rise of the Guardians is performing weakly compared to other DreamWorks Animation features.

None of this is wrong exactly, but I've noticed that when the media gets a storyline in its teeth, it seldom alters it.

For instance, there was much beating of tom toms about how Kung Fu Panda 2 wasn't doing as well as the original. I heard this over and over again, "Oooh, the new 'Kung Fu Panda'? Kind of a disappointment." Yet when all the receipts were in, KFP 2 collected more dollars than its predecessor.

It's always good to do independent research and draw your own conclusions.