North American box office: ‘The Blind Side’ surges

It was the biggest post-Thanksgiving weekend ever, according to Box Office Mojo -- in ticket sales, not in attendance -- and with its continued amazing performance, The Blind Side will, in the next few weeks, become the biggest-grossing sports movie ever. (Its cumulative take is now almost $130 million.) People likes ’em some pabulum.

New Moon is dropping fast, but it has already passed $255 million in North America alone, and will this week surpass Star Trek ($258 million) as the fifth money-making-est movie of the year. It will likely pass The Hangover ($277 million) at No. 4, but probably not Up ($293 million) at No. 3.

Other new openers didn’t fare so well. Armored clocked in at No. 7 with $6.5 million, and Everybody's Fine was down at No. 10, with $3.9 million. And Transylmania? Yikes. It had the fourth worst per-screen average ever for a wide release -- $262 -- and the worst opening ever for a movie playing at more than 1,000 venues: $263,941.

Up in the Air, on the other hand, enjoyed one of the best per-screen openings ever: $78,763. Whether it can hold as well when it goes wide on Christmas Day remains to be seen.

[numbers via Box Office Mojo]