Thanksgiving box office should still be up from last year...
The top 2 were the same as last week. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part II tallied an estimated $12.5 million on Wednesday, which was roughly the same as Part I's Wednesday gross ($12.3 million). In 13 days, the movie has collected over $175 million, and is headed for a five-day gross between $60 and $65 million.
Skyfall collected an estimated $7.3 million on Friday, which signals good word-of-mouth. Right now, based on early trajectories, Skyfall should land at around $45 million for the five-day holiday, with $30 milllion of it on the three-day weekend (even with last week).
But it was DreamWorks Animation that saw the downer this weekend. Originally expected to do great business, their latest film, Rise of the Guardians got off to a miserable start. In third place, the movie earned an estimated $5 million, which is short of The Muppets and Enchanted and less than half of Tangled. Maybe Thanksgiving isn't DreamWorks' thing. One positive note is that Guardians was able to do more than double what Arthur Christmas ($2.3 million) did on its' first Wednesday. That movie earned $16 million for the five-day. Taking Guardians advantage here, unless if it unexpectedly picks up on Thursday (which it could), the ceiling for the movie's 5-day gross is at around $35 million (which is on par with what Paramount predicted). However, I think its' probably going to wind up lower than that. I saw it yesterday and loved it, so I'm shocked to see it underwhelm. Lets' hope it holds on strong during the remainder of the holidays.
In fourth place, Lincoln continued to impress, with another estimated $4.9 million. The critically-adored flick should find its' way to a five-day gross of around $25 million.
The next strongest release actually overperformed. Life of Pi earned a solid estimated $4.7 million in fifth place. That's double the amount Hugo ($1.8 million) earned in less than half of this movie's theaters. Pi should challenge Lincoln for fourth place with $25 million also for the five-day holiday
Sixth went to Red Dawn, which is also overperforming. The star-studded war drama was able to tally an estimated $4.5 million. However, based on its' war theme, it probably will wind up at around $20 million for the five-day weekend.
Wreck-it Ralph is flexing muscles in the face of Rise of the Guardians, adding an additional estimated $3.6 million on Wednesday. Unless it drops hard on Thursday, Ralph should take sixth place for the weekend with a five-day tally north of $20 million, and its' cumulative gross may pass $150 million by Sunday as well.
Finally, in just 367 locations, romantic comedy The Silver Linings Playbook landed in ninth place with a solid estimated $550,000, in what should be a five-day weekend in the $3.5-$4 million range.
Here is the projected Top 10:
#1: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part II ($43 million 3-day/$64 million 5-day)
#2: Skyfall ($31 million 3-day/$46 million 5-day)
#3: Rise of the Guardians ($23 million 3-day/$33 million 5-day)
#4: Lincoln ($19 million 3-day/$26 million 5-day)
#5: Life of Pi ($18 million 3-day/$25 million 5-day)
#6: Wreck-it Ralph ($16 million 3-day/$23 million 5-day)
#7: Red Dawn ($14.5 million 3-day/$22 million 5-day)
#8: Flight ($6.5 million 3-day, $9 million 5-day)
#9: The Silver Linings Playbook ($3 million 3-day, $4 million 5-day)
#10: Argo ($2.5 million 3-day, $3.5 million 5-day)
