Boy was this a great weekend. I mean, think about it; we had THREE movies open wide over the Thanksgiving weekend. All three of them scored both positively with critics and audiences. Hell, the three films in question (Arthur Christmas, Hugo, and The Muppets) posted three of the highest scores on Rotten Tomatoes the entire year. Honestly, you couldn't fail with anyone of them.
So of course, the audiences once again choose Twilight. And with this weekend's offering being nothing (seriously, not a SINGLE wide release), Breaking Dawn will finally win again! This is so aggravating. Jack and Jill withstanding, almost every single other movie in theaters right now is better than Breaking Dawn: Part 1. Yet, that's the one that still wins out. Still, I guess we can take solace in the fact that the franchise is almost done. One more year...
Over the Thanksgiving weekend (which, in box office talk, means the five days between Wednesday and Sunday), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 grossed $61.8 million ($41 million for the three day weekend), raising its cume to $220 million. That's exactly double its budget. They say Summit is the house that Twilight built, and they weren't lying. Without Twilight, I'm curious if Summit would even exist today. There highest grossing, non-Twilight film is Red. Yup, the Bruce Willis pic from last year. And that didn't even cross a hundred million! Summit better have a contingency plan set for next year because, once those Twilight films are done, they won't have much left.
Coming in second for the five day weekend was The Muppets, with a total gross of $41.5 million for the five day weekend and about $29 million for the three day one (isn't Holiday box office weird?). Judging how the film was only shot for $40 million, that's perfectly fine for me! Already, it will be the highest grossing Muppet movie ever. Hopefully, the path to a $100 million will be an easy walk for the film. Happy Feet Two, on the other hand, probably won't get the chance to land at that number. The film has only made $43 million in the past two weeks, which is less than half of its predecessor's gross at the same time. The way things are looking for the franchise, a Happy Feet Three is almost an impossibility.
Rounding out the Top Five was Arthur Christmas and Hugo with grosses of $12 and $11 million respectively for the three day weekend. Hugo was a tough sell for audiences, so the number five position seems to fit fine. A 127 minute family film directed by Martin Scorsese primarily about his love of filmmaking? Yeah, $11 million makes sense. Arthur Christmas' $12 million is far more distressing for distributor Sony, but you can probably chalk that up to intense competition from the other films. Hopefully, it will stay steady throughout the Holiday season.
The chart:
1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1—$41,683,574
2. The Muppets—$29,239,026
3. Happy Feet 2—$13,397,346
4. Arthur Christmas—$12,068,931
5. Hugo—$11,364,505
6. Jack and Jill—$10,000,142
7. Immortals—$8,875,905
8. Puss In Boots—$7,511,036
9. The Descendants—$7,345,720
10. Tower Heist—$7,174,615
Well, that's it for this week! Don't forget to check back next week to see who wins the weekend of all the holdovers! Until then, have fun at the box office!
