When I was a lad (warning: grumpy old man rant ahead) movies would get released in key markets first –a few hundred theaters at most –then spend months rolling out through the hinterlands, gradually reaching a mass audience in second- and third-run houses. Back then, the release pattern and subsequent grosses for each movie told an individual story: Whether it was oversold in early release, whether it performed solidly and acceptably over the long run, or (the most-desired outcome) whether it “had legs.”

“The Blind Side” has legs, and they ain’t Sandra Bullocks’. In today’s multiplex marketplace, where the standard — no, only — release pattern is to carpet bomb a movie on thousands of screens and hope for one good weekend, the inspirational football/family drama finally clambered past “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” to claim the No. 1 spot in its third week of release. “Blind Side” saw a weekend gross 50% less than the previous (Thanksgiving) weekend but still made $20 million, enough to ensconce it firmly over the $100 million mark. “New Moon,” by contrast, fell another 63% and is now coasting on repeat business from teenage girls obsessed with Taylor Lautner’s abs — a major market niche, but still.

Among new releases, the melodramatic family squabble “Brothers” managed an okay $10 million at 2,000 or so theaters — it might have done better if “Blind Side” weren’t offering strong competition in roughly the same genre. The heist film “Armored” made $7 million, quite respectable considering this stalwart little B-flick wasn’t screened for critics and was barely promoted. At least it did better than “Everybody’s Fine,” the new Robert DeNiro family drama — ’tis the season but enough already — which sank with a $4 million sigh at 2,000 theaters.

Some other notes: The Jason Reitman/George Clooney dramedy “Up in the Air” opened at 15 theaters on a wave of great reviews to an excellent $79,000 per-theater average; it goes wide on Christmas. “Precious” finally halted its expansion into more theaters and promptly lost 67% compared to the previous weekend — I was wondering where the wall was for this movie and here it is. And Box Office Mojo reports that vampire-high spoof “Transylmania” now holds the record for lowest-grossing new release at over 1,000 theaters, with a positively toothless $272 per-theater average.

Fun trivia of the week: “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” has made $150 million to date and still isn’t profitable. Only another $50 million to go. Maybe if Jim Carrey went house to house with a cup.

More grosses from Box Office Mojo and Leonard Klady.