Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 dropped 60%, but still managed to earn an estimated $50.3 million at the Thanksgiving weekend box office, which made it a hair better than Disney’s 3-D animated feature Tangled, which debuted with an estimated $49.1 million. The superhero-themed animated feature Megamind finished a distant third, while newcomers Burlesque, Love and Other Drugs, and Faster underwhelmed. Overall the box office was down slightly from last year when Twlight: New Moon and The Blindside topped the charts during Turkey Day weekend.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): November 26 - 28, 2010 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 | $50,345,000 | 4,125 | $12,205 | $220,352,000 | 2 |
| 2 | Tangled | $49,100,000 | 3,603 | $13,628 | $69,000,000 | 1 |
| 3 | Megamind | $12,850,000 | 3,411 | $3,767 | $130,466,000 | 4 |
| 4 | Burlesque | $11,800,000 | 3,037 | $3,885 | $17,150,000 | 1 |
| 5 | Unstoppable | $11,750,000 | 3,183 | $3,691 | $60,726,000 | 3 |
| 6 | Love and Other Drugs | $9,850,000 | 2,455 | $4,012 | $14,000,000 | 1 |
| 7 | Faster | $8,708,000 | 2,454 | $3,548 | $12,200,000 | 1 |
| 8 | Due Date | $7,300,000 | 2,555 | $2,857 | $85,018,000 | 4 |
| 9 | The Next Three Days | $4,840,000 | 2,564 | $1,888 | $14,551,000 | 2 |
| 10 | Morning Glory | $4,030,000 | 2,441 | $1,651 | $26,451,000 | 3 |
The penultimate Potter pic has now earned $220 million domestically and over $610 worldwide. It has brought in more money in its first ten days than any film in the series and it should finish its domestic run in the $300 million neighborhood, but its potent earnings are partially the result of higher ticket prices--it still trails Sorcerer’s Stone and Goblet of Fire in the number of admissions.
Tangled, Disney’s contemporary take on Rapunzel, did better than expected and has amassed a 5-day total of $69 million. It is Disney’s best non-Pixar animated debut to date thanks to a stellar $13,628 average from 3,603 locations. 3-D showings at 2,461 locations accounted for 56% of the opening weekend’s tally. Tangled attracted an audience that was 61% female and 57% under 25. With little animated competition for its young female audience in the coming weeks, look for Tangled, which received a superb “A+” CinemaScore from audiences, to demonstrate solid “legs.”
In spite of Tangled’s potent debut, the Dreamworks 3-D animated feature Megamind dropped just 20%--probably because the superhero-themed comedy has a stronger appeal to boys and men than Tangled.
Males certainly didn't flock to the musical Burlesque starring
Love and Other Drugs, the R-rated romance comedy/drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, debuted tepidly with a $4,012 average at 2,455 theaters. It attracted an older (60% over 25) female (63%) audience.
The action pic/revenge drama Faster, which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, threw a rod, earning just $8.7 million in spite of a huge marketing campaign that involved hundred of spots during prime TV sporting events. It attracted an older (57% over 25) male (57%) audience. The only positive news to come out of Faster’s debut was the fact that the audience grew every day from Wednesday to Saturday, an indication that patrons liked the film a lot more than critics (Faster received only 43% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes).
Mention should be made of the runaway train epic Unstoppable, which posted the smallest decline in the top ten (just 10%). The Denzel Washington film has now moved past his remake of The Taking of Pelham 123.
The comic book based “geri-action” movie Red finally dropped out of the top ten in its 7th weekend of release, but still managed to add $1.4 million, bringing its total to $86.1 million.
