Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
December 3, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Historically one of the weakest box office weekends of the year, the weekend after Thanksgiving sees no new wide releases at all, which leaves Breaking Dawn, Part 1 on top for a third weekend with $5.5 million, off 67% from Black Friday. For those keeping score at home, its total now stands at $235.9 million, while New Moon had earned $245 million at this point. By the way, Breaking Dawn, Part 1 is only the second movie of 2011 to have three weekends at the top, and the first since The Help back in August. It should come in with a weekend of $16.5 million.
Notable Holdovers
Everything else suffers from the post-Thanksgiving holiday hangover. Second place belongs to The Muppets with $2.7 million, which is down 78% from last Friday. This isn't unheard of behavior (last year's Tangled fell 73.6% from its first Friday), though it sure is disappointing considering how great the movie is. It is still a family film and will rebound pretty solidly over Saturday and Sunday. Look for a second weekend of $10.9 million.
The other new releases from last weekend, [bp:200_]Martin Scorsese[/bp]'s Hugo earns $2 million (off 55.5%) while Aardman Studios' Arthur Christmas comes in with $1.7 million (down 63%). Hugo's expansion cushioned the drop somewhat, both both are down as expected, and both should rebound much like The Muppets. Give Hugo a weekend of $7.4 million while Arthur Christmas should come in with $6.2 million.