Box Office: ‘Harry Potter’ Trumps ‘Tangled’ By A Hair

Harry Potter held off a fair haired princess to eke out a win over the weekend.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows made $50.3 M, bringing its ten day total to $220 M.  If you count the entire Thanksgiving weekend (Wednesday through Sunday) the five day total was over $76 M, making it the fourth best Thanksgiving total on record.

It was hardly an easy task. Disney’s new princess caper Tangled performed very well, and made $49.1 M for the weekend;  $69 M over the five days.  This Thanksgiving opening take is second only to Toy Story 2, back in 1999.  When actual grosses come in on Monday, Tangled very well could top the box office.  It also got the first “A+”  from Cinemascore for the entire year. Audiences absolutely loved it.

Megamind is still performing very well.  It only dropped 19% in its fourth weekend for an additional $12.8 M.  It has now made $130 M, finally matching its reported budget. The Cher/Christina Aguilera musical Burlesque played well to audiences, and received a surprising “A-” from Cinemascore exit polls.  It placed fourth with $11.8 M ($17.2  M five-day total).

Denzel Washington’s Unstoppable was just a tad behind, in fifth place. Another new release, Love and Other Drugs, came in sixth with $9.8 M.  It should be noted that the film played on about a thousand fewer screens than the top three films this week.  Faster (starring Dwayne Johnson) came in just behind it.

The big story this week is a movie garnering Oscar buzz, The King’s Speech.  Starring Colin Firth, the film centers around King George VI, who had to overcome a horrific stutter in order to deliver a speech that would ultimately rally his country just before wartime. The film only opened on four screens, but it made over $350,000.  That’s about $87,000 per/screen, and it bodes very well for the future of the film.

In contrast, The Nutcracker in 3D played on 42 screens and only managed $68,000, for a dismal $1,619 per/screen average.  Considering the season, that is a little surprising.

Expect the same movies to duke it out next weekend.  They will be joined by newcomer The Warrior’s Way.