'2012' Wreaks Havoc on the Box Office

Movies Making Money.

The new disaster movie 2012 successfully helped keep the box office from experiencing its own cataclysm, pulling in a whopping $60 million, and placing it at the top of this weekend's new releases.

2012 is the kind of big-budget, big-effects kind of movie that audiences love to cozy up to. Starring John Cusack as a limo driver trying to get his family to safety while the world literally falls down around them, the film annihilated the box office with $60 million domestically and $160 million overseas.

In second place this week was Robert Zemeckis and Jim Carrey's 3D adventure, A Christmas Carol, with just over $22 million. That puts the total for the latest adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic holiday story at $63 million.

George Clooney's The Men Who Stare At Goats landed in third place with $6.2 million. The film, about a reporter (Ewan MacGregor) who meets a special forces agent (Clooney) who is part of a secret, psychic military unit, dropped 51% from last weekend, putting its total pull at $23 million.

Rounding out the top five this weekend were Precious, with $6 million even in a limited release, and Michael Jackson's This Is It, with $5.1 million.

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