'Enchanted' amid box office funk

LOS ANGELES -- The fairy-tale romance "Enchanted" maintained its magic at the box office, pulling in $17 million to remain the top movie amid a sleepy weekend at theaters.

Disney's "Enchanted," starring Amy Adams as a cartoon princess banished by her fiance's wicked stepmother (Susan Sarandon) to live-action Manhattan, raised its total to $70.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

After a solid Thanksgiving holiday in which revenues rose compared to the same period last year, Hollywood's business sank back into a box-office funk that has persisted most of the fall.

The top-12 movies took in $76.6 million, down 6 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Happy Feet" led the box office with $17.5 million and "Casino Royale" was No. 2 with $15.1 million.

Because of record summer revenue, business for the year is up, with Hollywood taking in $8.7 billion domestically so far, a 4.7 percent increase from 2006. Factoring in higher ticket prices, though, actual movie attendance is just a fraction ahead of last year's.

"After the strength of the summer, we expected the fall would follow suit, and it just hasn't done that," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "It's a good crop of films, but the marketplace just has not been able to rise above the levels we were hitting last year at this time."

The weekend's only new wide release, the Weinstein Co. and MGM thriller "Awake," opened in fourth-place with $6 million. "Awake" stars Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba and Terrence Howard in a tale about a man who is conscious during heart surgery and overhears his wife's plot to kill him.

1. "Enchanted," $17 million

2. "This Christmas," $8.4 million

3. "Beowulf," $7.9 million

4. "Awake," $6 million

5. "Hitman," $5.8 million

6. "Fred Claus," $5.6 million

7. "August Rush," $5.2 million

8. "No Country for Old Men," $4.5 million

9. "Bee Movie," $4.47 million

10. "American Gangster," $4.3 million