North American film-goers favored the apocalypse over Christmas this weekend as disaster flick "2012" beat Disney's "A Christmas Carol" to top the box office, according to early estimates Sunday. Trend-trackers Exhibitor Relations said the loosely Mayan-inspired tale of the world's end -- replete with computer-generated imagery -- totted up nearly half of all box office receipts in its opening weekend ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Disaster swept the world during the weekend as the apocalyptic movie "2012" registered the biggest opening for a non-franchise movie. The latest calamity epic from "Independence Day" director Roland Emmerich sold $225 million worth of tickets globally, distributor Columbia Pictures said on Sunday. Moviegoers in the United States and Canada chipped in $65 million, at the high ...

It's the end of the world as we know it, and Hollywood feels fine. Global warming, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, continuing terrorist threats and the economic meltdown have people in a gloomy, even end-of-days frame of mind. Filmmakers are tapping into ...