'Marley' leads pack on Christmas weekend

December 28, 2008 The weather outside might have been frightful in much of the country and retail sales were down, but many responded to the tough times by heading to the movies during the Christmas holiday, where "Marley & Me," the tale of a big, lovable dog, scored a wow bow. Even MGM/UA's historical thriller "Valkyrie" shared in the holiday spirit, scoring a stronger than anticipated fourth-place showing for a weekend that saw only Lionsgate's "The Spirit" stumble on its way out of the gate. "Fortunately, we had a situation where all the top movies had core audiences that overlapped some, but each had a primary audience," Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore said.

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