As we all know, Thursday was Thanksgiving Day in the good old USA, and with it always comes a flurry of big releases, and with that, big box-office. This was the case this weekend, and it all proved to be one of the most successful movie-going Thanksgiving weekends in the North American territories ever. Over a five-day period, the movies playing in NA cinemas made a huge $288 million, which smashed the previous record holder, 2009’s Thanksgiving period, which banked $268.6m. Of course, it helped that both a TWILIGHT sequel, and a Bond movie were involved in the proceedings, with THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2 holding on to the top spot for a second week with $43m in takings, and the 23rd 007 adventure making another $36 million over the three days. LINCOLN also showed good form making $25m and the number three spot.
The disappointing news of the weekend was the performance of Dreamworks Animation’s holiday movie RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, which bagged $24m and only the 4th spot on the list. At five was the hotly tipped Oscar hopeful LIFE OF PI from director Ang Lee, which made $24m, which doesn’t sound a lot, but this could have huge legs should the positive word-of-mouth spreads. Our critics get to see this film in just over a weeks time ahead of the UK release next month. The film made around $48 million around the globe over the weekend.
RED DAWN, this week’s other new entry only managed to make the seventh spot with a paltry $14.6m.
Here’s the rest.
1. Breaking Dawn Part 2 (Summit/Lionsgate) – Weekend $43.0M
2. Skyfall (Eon/MGM/Sony) – Weekend $36.0M
3. Lincoln (DreamWorks/Fox/Disney) – Weekend $25.0M
4. Rise Of The Guardians 3D (DreamWorks Anim/Par) – Weekend $24.0M
5. Life Of Pi 3D (Fox) – Weekend $22.0M
6. Wreck-It Ralph 3D (Disney) – Weekend $16.7M
7. Red Dawn (Film District) – Weekend $14.6M
8. Flight (Paramount) – $8.6M
9. Silver Linings Playbook (Weinstein) – $4.6M
10. Argo (Warner Bros) – Weekend $3.8M
Source: Various
