Box Office Report- TWILIGHT Leads The Way To Record Breaking Turkey Day Weekend

Thanksgiving is one of those holiday weekends that isn’t easy to predict – but studios know that the odds are good that families will eventually get bored of each other and head to the cinema. So this year the box office was stocked well with sparkly vampires, James Bond, Abe Lincoln, and a number of new movies that had theaters packed.

TWILIGHT BREAKING DAWN PART 2 and SKYFALL led the way to a grand total 5 day weekend of $288 million which topples the record set in 2009 with $258.6 million. It’s no secret that TWILIGHT would come in first place, bringing in $64 million, making a total of $577.7 million. SKYFALL, no surprise remains in the two spot, continuing it’s record breaking run as the highest grossing Bond film of all time with another $51 million at the domestic box office. Last week we talked about how Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN got off to a slower start then most had thought, well in the 5 day holiday LINCOLN brought in $34 million which makes honest Abe’s domestic take $62 million. (Worth noting that Lincoln is in significantly fewer theaters than its competitors, and is performing above average per screen.)

Coming in 4th and 5th are the newcomers to the group, Dreamworks’ animated holiday film RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, which came in under expectations at $32 million dollars for it’s first 5 days, after hitting theaters Wednesday. Rounding out the top 5 was Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI, which came in above expectations with $30 million dollars. The other newbie this week was RED DAWN. The remake earned some bad news over the weekend when the film swan dived to a lousy $14 million opening. RED DAWN cost $65 million to make and would need a miracle to earn that back at the domestic box office.