The Twilight Saga defeats The Muppets!
The Thanksgiving holiday weekend may be the time for family gatherings, but the trio of new family-friendly movies wasn’t as appealing to crowds as supernatural guys and unnatural delivery — in its second week, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN (PART 1) easily beat the premiering THE MUPPETS, ARTHUR CHRISTMAS and HUGO.
Over the three-day weekend, BREAKING DAWN (PART 1) collected $42 million ($62M over the 5-day stretch), for a total of $221M after ten days in release. Alas, our felt friends THE MUPPETS (who I clearly overestimated) made their big return but landed in second with $29.5M (and $42M since its Wednesday release). But Kermit and company should feel pretty cheerful anyway — the movie reportedly cost $45M, and will surely be strong for the weeks between now and Christmas.
Same for newcomer ARTHUR CHRISTMAS, which only shoveled $12.7M ($17M through the 5-day) — not even enough to rise above last week’s new CG ‘toon HAPPY FEET TWO, which danced away another $18.3M over the extended holiday box office weekend. But like THE MUPPETS, Aardman’s ARTHUR should play well until the next holiday.
The other new release, Martin Scorsese’s well-received 3D effort HUGO, performed admirably considering it opened in a third the amount of theaters as BREAKING DAWN. The adaptation brought in $15.3M since Wednesday, with a per-screen average nearly that of HUGO’s colorful competitors THE MUPPETS.
Elsewhere on the chart, JACK AND JILL, IMMORTALS, PUSS IN BOOTS and TOWER HEIST each rounded up another 8 figures over the 5-day, while George Clooney continued to be a commanding presence as THE DESCENDANTS expanded to 433 theaters and caught another $9.2M (with the highest per-screen average in the Top 10). Not hitting the list but still notable was the Weinsteins’ limited release of MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, pulling in $2M at 244 theaters.
Next week continues the same battle — BREAKING DAWN should keep plunging as the TWILIGHT series tends to do, but without any other new wide releases, THE MUPPETS, ARTHUR CHRISTMAS and HUGO should get a second chance to get the attention of families who were too busy eating, drinking, fighting and/or traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday.
| # | MOVIE TITLE | WKND $ | TOTAL $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 1) | $42 M | $221.3 M |
| 2 | The Muppets | $29.5 M | $42 M |
| 3 | Happy Feet Two | $13.4 M | $43.7 M |
| 4 | Arthur Christmas | $12.7 M | $17 M |
| 5 | Hugo | $11.3 M | $15.3 M |
| 6 | Immortals | $8.8 M | $68.6 M |
| 7 | Jack and Jill | $10.3 M | $57.4 M |
| 8 | Puss In Boots | $7.4 M | $135.6 M |
| 9 | Tower Heist | $7.3 M | $65.3 M |
| 10 | The Descendants | $7.2 M | $10.7 M |