Precious Rules the Box Office

After weeks of buzz and a coveted Oprah endorsement, Precious lived up to the hype and shattered box-office records, bringing in $1.8 million at just 100 screens across the U.S. Fellow buzz-generator This Is It beat out new releases to take the No. 3 slot, just behind Jim Carrey’s latest update on holiday classic A Christmas Carol, which brought in a lower-than-expected $31 million. George Clooney’s The Men Who Stare at Goats brought in a solid $13.3 million. A Hollywood mainstay that didn’t fare so well? Cameron Diaz, whose thriller The Box made just $7.9 million.