‘Polar Express’ pulls in after ‘Incredibles’

The holiday film season got off to an early, blistering start over the weekend – unless you were on “The Polar Express.”

The computer-animated film that cost $165 million to make took in a middling $23.5 million during its first weekend in theaters, finishing in second place, according to estimates from box office tracker Nielsen EDI. That leaves in doubt whether the Tom Hanks film can carve out its place in Hollywood’s crowded Christmas marketplace.

“Express” distributor Warner Bros. took a big gamble in opening the film just five days after “The Incredibles,” which continued to steamroll the competition over the weekend, earning $51 million. The latest offering from Pixar Studios has raked in $144.1 million in 10 days and shows no signs of slowing.

” ‘Polar Express’ is off to a decent start, but not a spectacular one,” says Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com. “It probably fell a little too close to ‘The Incredibles.’ Parents who were trying to decide which movie to take their kids to still chose ‘Incredibles’ 2-to-1.”

“The Polar Express,” based on the children’s book about a boy’s train trip to the North Pole, received wildly mixed reviews. Some critics called it a potential Christmas classic, while others said its hyper-realistic human figures resembled dead-eyed zombies.

Warner executives said they were thrilled with the movie’s performance and believed it was well positioned to play through the holidays.

“This is one of only two movies this year that’s truly about Santa Claus, the North Pole, that’s really geared for Christmas,” says Warner distribution chief Dan Fellman (the other is “Christmas With the Kranks,” due Nov. 24). “This is the momentum we wanted to build for the holidays.”

Fellman says the early release – most holiday films are released just before Thanksgiving – was intended to build steam against a spate of other family films. “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” opens Friday.

The battle for the kids over the weekend left a nice opening for adult fare, which performed well. The crime caper “After the Sunset” was third with $11.6 million, while “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” did a healthy $8.9 million in limited release.

Even “Seed of Chucky,” which would have seemed better suited for a Halloween release, managed a respectable $8.8 million debut.