The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.
Two new movies dominated the Thanksgiving weekend, bringing in more business than the other new movies combined: Disney's Enchanted, a combination of animation and live action starring Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey, and Sony/Screen Gems' ensemble holiday film This Christmas.
While Enchanted went into the weekend as the projected victor by opening in over 3,600 theaters, its estimated five-day take of $50 million surpassed most expectations, as it becomes the second-highest grossing movie to open over Thanksgiving weekend after Disney's own Toy Story 2 in 1999. The fantasy-comedy opened with over $8 million on Wednesday, itself the second-highest gross for the day before Thanksgiving, and after grossing another $6.5 million on Thursday, it would go onto make $35.5 million over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, the sixth largest amount grossed in that time frame.
This Christmas opened in the fewest theaters of the new openers, just over 1800, yet it claimed the largest per-theatre average in the top 10, averaging over $10,000 in the three days, compared to Enchanted's $9,472, to bring in $27.1 million in its first five days and $18.6 million over the three-day weekend, a definitive second place win.
Fox's action thriller Hitman, starring Timothy Olyphant, kicked-off the five day with an impressive $4.5 million, but by the weekend, its business had tapered off to the point where it only grossed $13 million over the three-day weekend and $21 million total. It wound up in fourth place behind last week's #1 Beowulf (Paramount), which brought in $16.2 million over the three-day weekend, down 41% from its opening, bringing its total gross up to $56.3 in ten days.
The other two new movies opening in wide release, the musical drama August Rush (Warner Bros.) and Stephen King's The Mist (Dimension Films), each grossed between $9 and 9.5 million over the three-day weekend and just over $13 million for the five days, with August Rush gaining an advantage over the weekend to take 7th place.
Both new movies opened behind returning family films, Jerry Seinfeld's animated Bee Movie (DreamWorks) and Vince Vaughn as Fred Claus (Warner Bros.), which took advantage of the demand for family fare over Thanksgiving for a minimal drop from last weekend. Bee Movie brought in $12 million compared to the holiday comedy's $10.7 million weekend take, bringing their grosses to $112 million and $53 million, respectively. Bee Movie also pulled closer to the total gross of Ridley Scott's crime drama American Gangster (Universal), with which it had been competing since they both opened four weeks ago. Gangster added another $9.2 million to its take of $115.7 million to drop down to eighth place over the weekend.
The entrance fee into the Top 10 this weekend was an astounding $8 million, compared to the $2 or 3 million of past weeks, and Joel and Ethan Coen's acclaimed No Country for Old Men (Miramax) was able to remain there, as it expanded nationwide into 860 theaters to make $8.1 million over the three-day weekend, bringing its gross to $16.6 million.
It knocked Fox Walden's Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman, out of the Top 10 even though that added another $8 million, a minimal drop of 17%.
Opening in 130 theaters in select cities, Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan tribute I'm Not There took in roughly a million dollars in its first five days, averaging $5,823 over the three-day weekend to open in 17th place.
Although the Thanksgiving weekend helped the box office pick up from the last few weeks, it was still down a tiny bit from the same period last year where the combination of George Miller's Happy Feet and James Bond in Casino Royale helped the box office take in a whopping $200 million over the five days.
