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August Rush, the sugary sweet fantasy from distributor Warner Bros. finishes seventh this weekend, as too many people saw Robin Williams' name in the credits and decided not to go. August Rush earned a soft $9.4 million over the three-day portion of the weekend, and $13.3 million over the five-day frame. This is a small, independent, $30 million effort, and the subject matter may propel this feature toward its production figure, but it won't make much more. Rush was only 39% fresh at RottenTomatoes, so word-of-mouth outside of grandmothers might be tough to find.

Finishing eighth is American Gangster, last weekend's third place finisher. The Denzel Washington opus earned $9.2 million in its fourth weekend, and was off 28% from the weekend previous. American Gangster has now earned $115.8 million.

Ninth spot goes to The Mist, Frank Darabont's take on the fantastic Stephen King novella. The Mist failed to enchant moviegoers, as the horror thriller took in $9.1 million over the three-day weekend and $13 million over the five-day session. Out to 2,423 venues, The Mist had a venue average of $3,740. With competition for males coming from Beowulf, Hitman, American Gangster and No Country For Old Men, The Mist had a tough row to hoe before it even got started. Surprisingly, The Mist does have some decent reviews to work with, as the flick came in at 69% fresh with 65 out of a possible 99 reviews to the good side. Usually, though, if it doesn't work in the first weekend, it's not going to work. The Mist is from Darabont's Darkwood Productions and the dead Dimension Films, and is distributed by MGM and Miramax. Considering the leads of the film, I can't imagine the cost here was overwhelming, so this may end up as a push for the production companies and distributors.

No Country For Old Men, the new thriller from Joel and Ethan Coen finishes in tenth place as it expands to 860 venues. No Country earned $8.1 million and had a venue average of $9,433. So far, this Coen Brothers effort has earned $16.6 million.

Overall, there is good news for the studios. Thanks mostly to Enchanted and This Christmas, the top 12 at the box office were able to earn $153 million. Last year, over the same frame, the top 12 brought in $146.6 million, about 4% less than this year. Studios and exhibitors should enjoy it while it lasts, as there is only one new opener next weekend, Awake with Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen.

Top Weekend Box Office for 11/23/07-11/25/07 (Actuals)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Actual Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Enchanted	Walt Disney Pictures	$35,332,000	$34,440,317	New	$49,060,281
2	This Christmas	Sony/Columbia	$18,600,000	$17,958,183	New	$26,341,492
3	Beowulf	Paramount	$16,240,000	$16,538,666	- 39.9%	$56,633,821
4	Hitman	Twentieth Century Fox	$13,035,000	$13,180,769	New	$21,094,148
5	Bee Movie	DreamWorks	$12,010,000	$11,813,502	- 15.7%	$111,860,810
6	Fred Claus	Warner Bros.	$10,735,000	$10,575,400	- 11.2%	$52,869,835
7	August Rush	Warner Bros.	$9,430,000	$9,421,369	New	$13,243,069
8	American Gangster	Universal	$9,207,311	$9,013,925	- 30.0%	$115,550,290
9	The Mist	Dimension Films	$9,062,000	$8,931,973	New	$12,861,800
10	Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium	Twentieth Century Fox	$8,000,000	$7,936,035	- 17.6%	$22,179,439
11	No Country for Old Men	Paramount	$8,112,000	$7,776,773	+152.8%	$16,313,580
12	Dan in Real Life	Touchstone Pictures	$3,261,000	$3,016,800	- 30.5%	$42,177,151
	Also Opening/Notables
	I'm Not There	The Weinstein Company	$757,385	$730,819	New	$974,601
	Starting Out in the Evening		N/A	$76,214	New	$76,214
	Midnight Eagle	Strand	N/A	$2,543	New	$2,543
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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