As expected, Disney’s A Christmas Carol debuted comfortably in first place this weekend. However, the Robert Zemeckis directed film starring Jim Carrey opened below expectations with a three-day start of $30.05 million. That marked the lowest first place finish for the first weekend of November since 2006 when Borat opened with $26.46 million (albeit from just 837 locations). A Christmas Carol did open 29 percent ahead of the $23.32 million debut of 2004’s The Polar Express (also directed by Zemeckis), though that gap becomes much less impressive when factoring in five years of ticket price inflation.

A Christmas Carol got off to an $8.88 million start on Friday, but didn’t hold up all that well on Saturday and Sunday for a film aimed at family audiences this time of year. That suggests that A Christmas Carol, much like Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are, could be widely viewed as being too dark for younger children. With a production budget in the area of $190 million and a large-scale marketing campaign, A Christmas Carol will need to hold up very well in the weeks ahead.

Fortunately for the film, Christmas themed movies usually display very strong holding power during the holiday season, with The Polar Express being one of the more notable examples (it boasted a total gross to opening weekend ratio of 6.98 to 1). Other notable total gross to opening weekend ratios for holiday films include 5.57 for 2003’s Elf, 4.80 for 2002's The Santa Clause 2, 4.72 for 2000’s The Grinch and 4.33 for 2006’s The Santa Clause 3. While there is no guarantee A Christmas Carol will exhibit a similar level of holding power at this point, the film’s higher priced 3D engagements and the lack of holiday themed films throughout the rest of November certainly improve its chances.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It held up relatively well this weekend by falling 43 percent. Sony’s concert documentary grossed $13.16 million, which was good enough for second place and brings the film’s 12-day total to $57.01 million. This Is It started off much slower than expected in its first five days of release, but thanks to strong word of mouth, repeat viewings and an extended theatrical window, its final domestic gross could still wind up towards the lower end of its pre-release expectations. This Is It is currently running 37 percent ahead of the pace of 2004’s Ray and is now just $8.27 million away from matching the $65.28 million domestic total gross of 2008’s Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus 3D.

Overture’s The Men Who Stare at Goats debuted in third with a solid $12.71 million. The war comedy starring George Clooney opened in line with pre-release expectations. In comparison to some of Clooney’s other recent films, The Men Who Stare at Goats opened slightly ahead of the respective $11.74 million and $10.37 million starts of 2005’s Syriana and 2007’s Michael Clayton, but 34 percent below the $19.13 million debut of last year’s Burn After Reading. The Men Who Stare at Goats delivered the third largest opening weekend to date for Overture, behind Law Abiding Citizen and last year’s Righteous Kill.

Horror-thrillers The Fourth Kind, Paranormal Activity and The Box occupied spots four through six this weekend, with the three films grossing a combined $28.08 million. Universal’s The Fourth Kind led the pack with $12.23 million, though its performance (as well as those of the other two films) was limited by the direct competition. Paramount’s Paranormal Activity followed with $8.28 million, which was down a steep, but understandable 49 percent from last weekend’s Halloween inflated performance. Warner’s The Box opened with an underwhelming $7.57 million.

Perhaps the weekend’s most notable story was the tremendous start in platform release by Lionsgate’s Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. The low-budget Oscar hopeful for Best Picture opened with $1.87 million from just 18 locations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta. After nearly breaking into the top ten and earning an exceptional per-location average of $104,025 this weekend, expect Precious to be a major factor at the box office throughout the holiday season. Precious will expand into additional markets each of the next two weekends.

BOXOFFICE.com's Weekly Anticipation Index with early predictions can be read here.