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Box office: 'Harry Potter' holds off 'Tangled' to win Thanksgiving weekend
The Thanksgiving weekend was a very good one at the box office if you happened to be a kid-friendly movie. Otherwise, not so much."Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I" and "Tangled" dominated the holiday period, earning a combined $145.3 million between Wednesday and Sunday (Nov. 24-28). "Deathly Hallows" stayed at No. 1 on its second weekend, earning an estimated $50.3 million in the Friday-Sunday timeframe and an additional $26 million at the start of the long weekend for a total of $76.3 million.
Disney's "Tangled," meanwhile, outperformed expectations by a mile in earning $49.1 million from Friday to Sunday and $69 million over the five-day period. It had been projected to come in at $40 million or so for the five days, but it hit that mark by the end of Friday and kept going.
There was a huge dropoff from "Tangled" to the third-place finisher, "Megamind" (estimated $12.85 million for the weekend, $17.55 million Wednesday-Sunday). But the DreamWorks Animation movie only fell 20 percent compared to last weekend, a very respectable showing for a movie in its fourth week.
The weekend's other new releases had mediocre showings at best. "Burlesque" earned $17.2 million from Wednesday to Sunday, a little below its forecast of $20 million. "Love and Other Drugs" earned an estimated $14 million over five days, and "Faster" took in $12.2 million.
Thanksgiving weekend's top 10 movies, based on five-day box office totals, are:
1. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I," $76.3 million
2. "Tangled," $69 million
3. "Megamind," $17.55 million
4. "Burlesque," $17.2 million
5. "Unstoppable," $16.2 million
6. "Love and Other Drugs," $14 million
7. "Faster," $12.2 million
8. "Due Date," $10.25 million
9. "The Next Three Days," $6.3 million
10. "Morning Glory," $5.5 million
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Photo/Video credit: Warner Bros., Disney
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LAOD and burlesq ue have failed miserably.
I saw both movies (second time for Harry) this holiday weekend. Saw Tangled in 2D (much better than getting headaches and paying ridiculous prices for a kid's movie). But honestly, the only reason Tangled even came close to Harry Potter is the difference in 3D as opposed to 2D ticket prices. When a family of 4 is paying 12 to 16 dollars more to see a movie once I bet there will be less repeat business and the theaters themselves probably suffer since they make their money in the first few weeks on the food.
Not sure why they decided to open The Next Three Days the day Harry Potter opened. I am surprised it did as well as it did this week considering our theaters, starting Wednesday, only ran it once a day, at 10 p.m. So basically it had 5 days as a first run movie for us. Saw it the first week, same day I saw Harry Potter the first time. It is a good movie, well acted. Not sure why they opened so many movies for Thanksgiving either. Just odd.