By Mary Montserrat-Howlett

HOLLYWOOD(RushPRnews)12/15/08–Despite rather middling reviews, 20th Century Fox’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, (starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly), topped this weekend’s box office, earning itself a moderate $31 million, as compared to its expected $50 mill over its weekend release. Certainly not the worst of news for a movie that MTV movie reviewer Kurt Loder called, “A boldly mediocre remake of the 1951 sci-fi saucer-man movie”.

In its defense, “Day” did succeed in keeping the story relevant to problems the world faces today, though Keith Williams of Hollywood Today says it probably could have done better as a sequel to Rennie’s 1951 classic. In this recent rendition, Klaatu, (the alien played by Reeves, whom has probably found his calling in this inexpressive character ) doesn’t come to our planet to warn us of the dangers of atomic weapons. Now, he is on a mission to protect the Earth, (and he is not talking about the people on it).

A noble attempt at an environmentally meaningful message, perhaps this is why the summer-style action flick, beat out quirky holiday comedy “Four Christmases” starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, about a couple’s struggle to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas day.

After two weeks at No. 1. and an overall $88 million since its release “Four Christmases stepped down, to a No.2 spot, which brought down Summit Entertainment’s fangtabulous, teenage vampire film “Twilight” to No.3; sucking in $8 million at the weekend’s box office. Still going strong, “Twilight” has earned more than $150 million in its four weeks of release.

Disney’s animated film Bolt filled the No.4 spot with $7.5 million over the weekend and a total of $88.9 million since its four week release. This left Baz Luhrman’s epic romance “Australia”, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, with $4.3 million this weekend and a total of $37.9 million in its three weeks in theaters. According to IMDB, Kidman was so confident having Luhrrman as director that she hadn’t even read the script before signing on to the movie and was also able to convince Jackman to do the same.