Weekend Box Office: November 16-18, 2012

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Breaking Dawn… and the bank!

While you may be emotionally shattered (or perhaps not?) that the TWILIGHT movie franchise has come to a close, the sparkle-vamp series went out in a big way — THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2 ended the epic story of teen angst and monsterly love with a $141.3 million opening weekend.

BREAKING DAWN PART 2 narrowly edged past the first weekend of BREAKING DAWN PART 1, which opened last year (on this same weekend before Thanksgiving) with $138.1 million. But NEW MOON still holds the TWILIGHT opening record with $142.8 million back in 2009.

The final big blockbuster bloodsucker throwdown also collected nearly $200 million in additional cash from international crowds. Before it disappears completely (until the inevitable spinoff or reboot, naturally), the entire TWILIGHT series will have made more than $3 billion for a worldwide haul, and on a total reported production budget less than $400 million for the five movies. Talk about return on investment…

Facing the pasty cast of curiously coiffed immortals, SKYFALL took a skydive of 53% from its opening, grabbing $41.5 million in its second weekend. With $161.3 million so far, 007’s latest assignment is already sneaking up on the domestic totals of the previous biggest Bonds (CASINO ROYALE – $167.4M; QUANTUM OF SOLACE – $168.3M) and has reached a stratospheric $669.2 million for a global total.

Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN expanded from 11 screens to 1775, and placed third with $21 million. Considering the glowing reviews and award buzz for bearded Daniel Day-Lewis, the tall man’s tale should be gathering attention for several weeks.

Disney’s WRECK-IT RALPH is still punching pixels in fourth with $18.3 million, Denzel is still drawing some crowds with his drama FLIGHT in fifth with $8.6 million, and Affleck’s ARGO still has some go, but things take a steep drop after that.

And as THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA and CLOUD ATLAS leave the list, recent Bollywood production JAB TAK HAI JAAN has generated enough American interest to crack the Top 10, an uncommon feat for Bollywood films. David O. Russell’s SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK also opened in just 16 locations and collected nearly $500k for the best non-vampire per-screen average of the weekend.

Opening on Wednesday this week is the seemingly superfluous remake of 80s classic RED DAWN, Ang Lee’s adaptation of seafaring boy and tiger in LIFE OF PI, and Dreamworks’ CG-animated adventure pitting Santa (and company) against evil in RISE OF THE GUARDIANS. Friday sees the release of more award-friendly fare like Anthony Hopkins as masterpiece-maker HITCHCOCK, the Marion Cotillard tearjerker RUST AND BONE, and the expansion of SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.

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