1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn pt. 2- $43.07M/$226.9M
Turns out when people were done stuffing their faces with turkey this Thanksgiving, they didn't turn on football. Instead they ran out and went to the movies in record-breaking droves, with estimates setting the pace at roughly $290M for the 5-Day weekend. Leading the pack was Breaking Dawn, which slipped a hefty 70% from last weekend but the kicker is that the franchise continues to increase its foreign audience, with a $199M overseas haul making for a $426M global total.
2. Skyfall- $36M/$221.7M
In its third weekend of release, Skyfall dipped a miniscule 12%, but factoring in the 5-Day holiday actually bumped up its hold by 24%. Already the highest grossing Bond film ever at $790M, we could be looking at a $900M+ global total by the time its run is finished.
3. Lincoln- $25M/$62.18M
Three weeks in and just now edging past 2000 theaters, Disney looks to have made a smart move by rolling out Lincoln slowly, building it as a prestige picture with obvious Oscar aspirations.
4. Rise of the Guardians- $24M/$32.6M
Not on a lot of people's radars until very recently, Dreamworks biggest animated release of the year opened strong thanks to a smart marketing campaign that positioned it as an unconventional holiday film. Audiences clearly loved it, based on the 'A' Cinemascore, and considering there are numerous books in William Joyce's series you can probably expect to start hearing about sequels very soon.
5. Life of Pi- $22M/$30.15M
It was difficult to gauge how an ambitious, deeply spiritual film like Life of Pi would perform, especially in the wake of Cloud Atlas' dismal failure, but Ang Lee appears to have found himself a modest hit. The only question now is whether it can recoup the rather hefty $120M price tag. The film should play well over the holidays, and a strong 'A-' Cinemascore should encourage a solid second week hold.There's been a good deal of Oscar buzz painting this as a potential dark horse in the race, which can only add to the film's lasting appeal.
6. Wreck-It Ralph- $16.76M/$149.5M
7. Red Dawn- $14.6M/$22M
It's funny, but it seems like most people have already forgotten about Red Dawn before the week is even over. After sitting on the shelf for a couple of years, the remake of the 1984 cult classic emerged with a newly popular cast including Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, but audiences didn't really seem to care.
8. Flight- $8.6M/$74.9M
9. Silver Linings Playbook- $4.6M/$6.45M
Jumping up eight spots after seeing its theater count pushed to 367, Silver Linings Playbook continues to perform admirably, notching a $12,500 per site average. The Weinsteins are positioning this as one of their big awards horses, so expect a pretty heavy push in the coming weeks for stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.
10. Argo- $3.87M/$98.1M
Also opening in very limited release and doing gangbusters was Hitchcock, which scared up over $300k at only 17 locations.
Rust and Bone, which many expect to be a Best Picture finalist(I certainly do) opened at 2 locations for a solid $30K.
