Weekend Box Office Nov 23-25

The Thanksgiving weekend is usually one of the biggest at theaters of the year, and 2012 was no different.  With several strong openings and 3 very strong carryovers, this year was over $200 million at the box office.

Repeating at #1 was Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 with $43.6m for a $227m total thus far.  Look for saga’s conclusion to bite off close to $300m when all is said and done.  Skyfall had an amazing hold with $35.5m, down only 13.6% from last weekend.  Already the largest grossing Bond ever, both domestically and worldwide, the film also became the first Bond to cross $200m in the US.  Wow.  And holding as well as it has, there is a chance for $300m as well.  Something thought impossible up until Skyfall’s remarkable release.

Lincoln added a couple hundred theaters and actually grew at the box office to $25.6m for a $62.8m total.  The Spielberg biopic should easily hit $100m.  Rise of the Guardians had a piss poor debut for an animated film with only $23.7m for a $32m total.  For an enormously budgeted family flick, this is an awful opening and even more proof that there is no Santa Claus. With a CinemaScore rating of A, the film could hang on to about $100m or so, but that won’t be close to enough to make the film profitable.

Life of Pi, which we’ll review on this week’s show, opened to an ok $22.4m for a $30m total.  Also a large budget and an A rating from CinemasScore, the film has a lot more overseas potential than Guardians so look for that film to make most of its money overseas.

The last opening was Red Dawn, another film we’ll review on this week’s show, opened to $14.2m for a $21m total.  That’s actually not to bad for a film that was shelved for 3 years and many expected would never get a release.  With a CinemaScore rating of B, time will tell how word of mouth impacts the film.

For our reviews of Breaking Dawn Part 2, Lincoln and Hitchcock, listen to Episode 69 of The HO!