2009's Top Films: A Comparative Graph

2009 has been a very curious year as regards major films, because we have witnessed several releases showcasing the kind of legs associated more commonly with the 1980s and 1990s. Paul Blart and Taken at the beginning of year, and The Hangover, The Proposal, and Up during the summer, have all had remarkable holds week after week. They have been countered by the usual suspects: the big films that have wide openings and then fizzle quickly. 2009 has given us several of those films, foremost among them Watchmen. Below are two graphs that pit all the 2009 $100m+ releases thus far against each other weekend to weekend. I know it's hard to make out sometimes, because of the number of films, but the main point, that films with smaller openings have outlasted films with larger ones, is clear enough. The first graph is for just the first four weekends, while the second one is for 12 weekends: