LITTLE ROCK — The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2, the finale in the teen vampire series, kept the top spot in U.S. and Canadian cinemas over Thanksgiving weekend, driving sales to a record for the five-day period.
The last of the five-film series from Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. collected $64 million over the long weekend that started Nov. 21, Hollywood.com Box-Office said, helping push combined domestic industry revenue to $290 million. The previous five-day record of $273 million was set in November 2009. Twilight had $43.6 million in sales from Nov. 23 to Sunday.
The young-adult films Twilight and The Hunger Games, along with summer hits like Marvel’s The Avengers, have led an increase in 2012 domestic sales, with revenue up 5.5 percent, to $9.7 billion through Sunday, according to Hollywood. com. Three new movies opened in wide release last week: Rise of the Guardians from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., Life of Pi from News Corp.’s Fox and Film-District LLC’s Red Dawn.
The weekend’s strong mix of films, each reaching specific audiences, helped buoy ticket sales, with newcomers expected to attract moviegoers through the Christmas season, analysts said.
Among last week’s returning titles, the James Bond film Skyfall collected $35.5 million to place second in its third weekend for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Columbia. With $686 million in worldwide sales as of Nov. 21, the picture has already become the best-performing film in the long-running secret agent series, according to Box Office Mojo.
Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s examination of the 16th U.S. president’s political campaign to end slavery, was third with about $25.7 million in its second weekend in nationwide release. The film was produced by the director’s DreamWorks Studios and is being distributed by Walt Disney Co.
Daniel Day-Lewis portrays the president as he maneuvers to win congressional approval of the 13th Amendment. Unlike most Spielberg films, Lincoln has little action, focusing instead on negotiations and debates held inside the White House and the Capitol.
Rise of the Guardians opened with weekend sales of $23.8 million, to place fourth, Hollywood.com said.
The 3-D picture, one of two releases this year from Glendale, Calif.-based DreamWorks Animation, was forecast to take in $32.1 million, according to BoxOffice.com. The studio’s other 2012 release, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, generated $737.6 million in worldwide ticket sales, according to researcher Box Office Mojo.
Life of Pi, from Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee, opened with sales of more than $22 million to place fifth for 20th Century Fox. The fantasy adventure features Suraj Sharma as a young man who survives a disaster at sea and finds himself sharing a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
Disney’s animated Wreck-It Ralph fell to sixth place from fourth, with about $16.5 million in sales. It stars John C. Reilly as the voice of a video game character who grows weary of playing the villain in a vintage arcade game.
Weekend revenue for the top 12 films rose 29 percent, to $200.4 million from a year earlier, Hollywood.com said.
MovieStyle, Pages 36 on 11/30/2012