‘New Year’s Eve’ on top in a sluggish weekend at box office

Lea Michele in a scene from “New Year’s Eve,’’ which debuted in theaters this past weekend.

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood’s holidays are off to a dreadful start: Fewer people went to the movies the last two weekends than during the box-office hush that followed the Sept. 11 attacks 10 years ago.

Domestic revenues tumbled to a 2011 low of about $77 million this weekend, when the star-filled, holiday-themed romance “New Year’s Eve’’ debuted at No. 1 with a weak $13.7 million, according to studio estimates yesterday.

It’s the worst weekend in more than three years, since the weekend after Labor Day in 2008, when revenues amounted to $67.6 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. And it comes after an $81 million total a week earlier that had been this year’s previous low.

“It’s unbelievable how bad it is,’’ said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Jonah Hill’s comedy “The Sitter’’ opened at No. 2 with just $10 million.

Revenues this past weekend are down 17 percent compared to the same period last year, when business totaled $91.8 million.

The slowdown the last two weeks followed a quiet Thanksgiving weekend, when new movies failed to pack in the projected droves.

“The audience certainly is available. Unfortunately, they have not come out in the numbers they have in the past,’’ said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., which released “New Year’s Eve,’’ whose cast includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Halle Berry, Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Hilary Swank, and Jessica Biel. “I’m hoping this is just a glitch, and starting next weekend, the box-office will expand.’’

Next weekend begins Hollywood’s end-of-year blockbuster frenzy, with the debuts of Robert Downey Jr.’s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’’ and the family sequel “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.’’

Charlize Theron’s comic drama “Young Adult’’ goes wide after starting in limited release this past weekend, while Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol’’ launches in huge-screen IMAX theaters before expanding to general release the following week.

“I still want to think that our business is product driven, but we’re about to find out, because we’ve got some major films coming,’’ said Chris Aronson, head of distribution at 20th Century Fox, the studio behind “The Sitter’’ and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.’’ “There’s a lot of good stuff coming, and I think audiences are going to be primed.’’

It might be a different story now if one of the upcoming action movies had opened around Thanksgiving, offering Hollywood’s main audience - young males - something to see.

At No. 1 the last three weekends was “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1,’’ whose audience is mainly women. “Breaking Dawn’’ fell to No. 3 this weekend with $7.9 million, raising its domestic total to $259.5 million.

Behind “Breaking Dawn’’ has been that rush of family flicks, with nothing fresh out there on the action front in more than a month.

“That has created a major vacuum in the marketplace, not serving that bread-and-butter audience of Hollywood,’’ Dergarabedian said.

Released by Paramount, Theron’s “Young Adult’’ opened in eight theaters and took in $320,000, averaging a strong $40,000 a cinema. That compares to a $3,910 average in 3,505 theaters for “New Year’s Eve.’’

Focus Features’ Cold War thriller “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,’’ based on John le Carre’s novel, also had a big opening in limited release with $300,737 in four theaters, for a $75,184 average.

By David Germain