Weekend Box Office (November 26 - 28, 2010)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND The wizard sequel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 won a narrow victory and held onto the top spot at the North American box office over a busy Thanksgiving holiday frame with $49.1M in its second weekend of release, according to final studio figures. Tumbling an expected 61% from its debut, the Warner Bros. smash raised its ten-day domestic tally to an impressive $219.1M. Compared to the last installment to open on a November Friday - 2005's Goblet of Fire - Hallows opened 22% better but after ten days the lead has been cut to just 9%. Goblet even grossed more on its second weekend when it took in $54.7M over the same turkey session for a 47% decline.

Hallows still has a shot at breaking the $300M mark domestically, though it's not likely to go much past that. Overseas, the new Potter grossed an estimated $114M boosting the international total to $383M and the global haul to a stellar $602M with South Korea still to come in mid-December.

Disney showed some big muscles with its newest princess tale Tangled which debuted a hair behind in second with $48.8M and a potent $68.7M over the five-day span starting Wednesday. The PG-rated 3D animated film was always expected to have a strong showing in the number two spot but did much better than anticipated with a sizzling $13,535 average from 3,603 locations. 3D surcharges certainly helped. Tangled opened much better than the studio's 2007 princess pic Enchanted which bowed to $34.4M and $49.1M in five days. Reviews were very positive and the road ahead does not have too much competition.

Moviegoers looking for a more guy-oriented 3D toon chose former number one Megamind which slipped 22% to $12.6M. Paramount has grossed $130.2M to date with its third DreamWorks Animation title of the year.

Sony's musical Burlesque followed with a mild debut. The Christina Aguilera-Cher combo drew in $11.9M over the weekend and $17.3M across the five-day span. Playing in 3,037 sites, the PG-13 film averaged only $3,934 over the Friday-to-Sunday period and performed exactly like the studio's 2005 turkey weekend musical Rent. That film bowed to $17.1M over the Wednesday-to-Sunday session. Reviews for Burlesque were terrible and the crowd was 69% female.

Enjoying the smallest dip of any film in the top ten was Fox's runaway train flick Unstoppable which eased just 12% to $11.4M. After 17 days, the Denzel Washington film has taken in a solid $60.4M.

Coming in sixth was the Viagra comedy Love and Other Drugs which debuted to $9.7M over three days from 2,455 theaters. The Fox release averaged a so-so $3,967 and its five-day total was $13.9M. Starring Brokeback Mountain alums Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, the R-rated film played to adults and was met with lukewarm reviews.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson suffered one of the worst openings of his career with the action pic Faster which debuted in seventh place with $8.5M from 2,454 locations for a mild $3,473 average. The CBS Films release played to an adult male crowd and grossed $12M over its five-day holiday debut which was even with the three-day launch of the actor's animated dud Planet 51 from last November. Faster cost $24M to produce with CBS kicking in half the amount plus domestic marketing costs. But unlike other films in the marketplace right now, the R-rated film actually saw daily increases from Wednesday thru Saturday so audiences do seem to be liking it.

The Warner Bros. comedy Due Date followed with $7.2M, off just 20%, for a $84.9M cume. Dropping 27% was the Russell Crowe pic The Next Three Days with $4.7M for Lionsgate upping the ten-day total to $14.4M. Morning Glory rounded out the top ten with $3.9M, down 25%, giving Paramount $26.3M to date.

Debuting with spectacular results in platform release was the Oscar hopeful The King's Speech which bowed to $355,450 from a mere four theaters for a scorching $88,863 average. The Weinstein Co. release starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush earned strong reviews and expands to more cities in the weeks ahead.

The top ten films grossed $167.8M which was off just 3% from last year when The Twilight Saga: New Moon remained in the top spot with $42.9M; but up 10% from 2008 when Four Christmases debuted at number one with $31.1M.


Compared to Friday-to-Sunday projections, Tangled surged higher than my $31M forecast while Burlesque was close to my $13M prediction. Love and Other Drugs was on target with my $9M projection and Faster came in below my $12M forecast.

Get earlier box office updates and analysis by following BoxOfficeGuru.com on Twitter.

For reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 and the Toy Story 3 DVD, visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when The Warrior's Way opens.

Marketplace - Shop for DVDs, electronics, books, and posters at discounted prices:

# Title Nov 26 - 28 Nov 19 - 21 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Harry Potter/Deathly Hallows Part 1 $ 49,087,101 $ 125,017,372 -60.7 4,125 2 $ 11,900 $ 219,056,129 Warner Bros.
2 Tangled 48,767,052 3,603 1 13,535 68,706,298 Buena Vista
3 Megamind 12,575,778 16,012,831 -21.5 3,411 4 3,687 130,218,934 Paramount
4 Burlesque 11,947,744 3,037 1 3,934 17,300,213 Sony
5 Unstoppable 11,432,903 13,005,855 -12.1 3,183 3 3,592 60,442,621 Fox
6 Love and Other Drugs 9,739,161 2,455 1 3,967 13,901,532 Fox
7 Faster 8,523,153 2,454 1 3,473 12,002,840 CBS
8 Due Date 7,167,885 8,912,182 -19.6 2,555 4 2,805 84,861,008 Warner Bros.
9 The Next Three Days 4,683,123 6,452,779 -27.4 2,564 2 1,826 14,392,072 Lionsgate
10 Morning Glory 3,910,058 5,200,233 -24.8 2,441 3 1,602 26,340,571 Paramount
11 127 Hours 1,708,883 916,533 86.5 293 4 5,832 4,420,168 Fox Searchlight
12 Fair Game 1,560,189 1,455,819 7.2 396 4 3,940 5,958,797 Summit
13 Red 1,375,685 2,483,043 -44.6 914 7 1,505 86,117,412 Summit
14 For Colored Girls... 1,362,287 2,299,956 -40.8 605 4 2,252 36,564,364 Lionsgate
15 Skyline 1,141,440 3,560,985 -67.9 1,186 3 962 20,215,790 Universal
16 The Social Network 707,153 935,677 -24.4 291 9 2,430 90,423,986 Sony
17 Secretariat 647,172 971,909 -33.4 501 8 1,292 57,547,263 Buena Vista
18 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 390,888 401,819 -2.7 168 5 2,327 4,011,260 Music Box
19 Despicable Me 363,090 269,335 34.8 266 21 1,365 249,724,650 Universal
20 The King's Speech 355,450 4 1 88,863 355,450 Weinstein Co.
Top 5 $ 133,810,578 $ 169,401,019 -21.0
Top 10 167,833,958 184,401,055 -9.0
Top 20 177,446,195 191,519,271 -7.3
Top 20 vs. Thanksgiving 2009 177,446,195 181,631,260 -2.3

Last Updated: November 29, 2010 at 9:20PM ET

Watch Gitesh Pandya's weekly box office preview on CNN International airing live each Thursday at 7:40pm ET.