Weekend Box-Office: December 2-4, 2011

The Twilight Saga is still more popular than The Muppets!(?)

A new week but the same story, at least as far as the top two movies at the box office. The weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday is always one of the year’s slowest for box office business, and with the lack of new cinematic releases, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN (PART 1) had enough leftovers in the fanbase to put it at #1 for a third week with $16.5M.

Audiences are apparently indifferent to the return of THE MUPPETS as the fuzzy chums dropped 62% from last week with just $11.2M (let’s hope that apathy doesn’t mean it’ll be another 12 years before they get another shot on the big screen). But Martin Scorsese’s 3D effort HUGO held on strong (and expanded onto a few hundred more screens), losing only a third of last week’s total and hitting 3rd place with another $7.6M. But considering its budget (somewhere around $150M), it better have healthy legs for the long haul.

Also clinging to its slot from last week (and only dropping 39%) was ARTHUR CHRISTMAS, which should definitely be able to hang around the chart right through the holiday. While it hasn’t hit the same overall tally yet, Aardman’s merry CG movie seems to be performing better than HAPPY FEET TWO, which is sliding down the list and won’t come close to the first movie’s nearly $200M total.

Although I suspected it would make the Top 5, George Clooney’s drama THE DESCENDANTS was held down to 7th place by JACK AND JILL and HAPPY FEET TWO, but its $5.2M is still powerful considering it’s only at 574 locations (compared to the 3000+ of those two movies). And with $18M already banked and award chatter continuing, the movie could stick around for awhile. (Also getting similar attention outside the Top 10 is MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, which swept up $1.1M in just 244 theaters.)

Next weekend has another movie getting a big head start on the holiday as the all-star romcom NEW YEAR’S EVE opens, with Jonah Hill’s R-rated comedy THE SITTER presenting the only major competition. But if you’re looking for a more elusive alternative, there are several films arriving in limited release, including WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, I MELT WITH YOU, W.E. and the Diablo Cody/Jason Reitman reunion YOUNG ADULT (which expands later in December).