Weekend Box Office: November 23-25, 2012

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Twilight tops a big Thanksgiving!

The TWILIGHT saga may have finally ended, but it’s still going strong at the box office. Total ticket sales set a record for biggest Thanksgiving five-day holiday this past weekend, and at the top THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN (PART 2) feasted on moviegoers’ wallets with $43 million (and $64 million over the five-day period).

The franchise-ender still has a ways to go before reaching last year’s BREAKING DAWN (PART 1) domestic total of $281.2 million (only ECLIPSE has reached $300M), but with no new “event” movies until THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY on December 14th, the dreamy sparkle-vamps and werewolves should be comfortable in the #1 spot for a while longer. BREAKING DAWN (PART 2) has also devoured an additional $350.8 million from international audiences.

Agent 007 was back in second place with $36 million for SKYFALL ($51.1 million for the five-day). With $221.7 million in domestic box office and a $790.1 million worldwide total, SKYFALL is easily the biggest Bond movie ever (previous champ was CASINO ROYALE with $599 million globally).

In third place once again was Steven Spielberg’s history lesson LINCOLN with $25 million ($34 million over the five-day), propelled by great reviews and an Oscar-caliber performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as the stoic 16th American President. The biopic has made $62.1 million after just two weekends in wide release, putting it close to its reported $65M budget already.

None of the new releases could break last week’s Top 3, with RISE OF GUARDIANS doing best in fourth place with $24 million (and $32.6 total since its Wednesday opening). The Dreamworks CG-animated flick turns childhood legends like Santa and the Tooth Fairy into evil-battling heroes, but even the high concept and bestselling book origins couldn’t draw crowds like Dreamworks’ previous animated fare. Still, it’s conceivable that the solid audience reactions (an ‘A’ CinemaScore) and the presence of Mr. Claus could help carry it through the holiday period.

Ang Lee’s 3D adaptation of LIFE OF PI drifted in fifth with $22 million (and $30.1M total). The story of a young man and a tiger stranded on a lifeboat did receive the strongest critical reactions of the major new movies, and it will need some positive word-of-mouth — bringing majestic beast Richard Parker to the big screen cost $120 million.

The endlessly delayed remake of RED DAWN surrendered in seventh place with just $14.6 million (less than the fourth weekend of Disney’s WRECK-IT RALPH). Filmed in 2009, the pre-THOR Chris Hemsworth actioner got caught up in MGM’s bankruptcy problems, and had its villains altered from Chinese to North Koreans, before finally getting released to a new generation that may still prefer Swayze and Sheen defending our rural areas from invading armies.

While FLIGHT is still gliding and ARGO comes a breath away from $100 million, David O. Russell’s SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK expanded onto 367 screens and scored the highest per-screen average in the Top 10, for a ninth place slot with a $4.6 million weekend. Excellent reviews, award buzz and a popular cast should see the comedy-drama slowly generating decent cash for several weeks. Outside the chart, Anthony Hopkins as HITCHCOCK got a 17-screen start for a respectable but not spectacular $17k per-screen.

Next week brings the horror sequel THE COLLECTION and Brad Pitt’s crime thriller KILLING THEM SOFTLY, plus limited release of UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING.

Did you go see anything over the holiday weekend? VOTE HERE!

# MOVIE TITLE WKND $ TOTAL $
1 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 2) $43 M $226.9 M
2 Skyfall $36 M $221.7 M
3 Lincoln $25 M $62.1 M
4 Rise of the Guardians $24 M $32.6 M
5 Life of Pi $22 M $30.1 M
6 Red Dawn $14.6 M $22 M
7 Wreck-It Ralph $16.7 M $149.5 M
8 Flight $8.6 M $74.8 M
9 Silver Linings Playbook $4.6 M $6.4 M
10 Argo $3.8 M $98.1 M
Source: Box Office Mojo

About the Author

4285 Articles Published