This past week saw the Thanksgiving holiday arrive across the pond, which meant a sudden avalanche of family movies looking to capitalise on the family gatherings traditional at that time. But while three new films arrived with their laser sights pointed at that audience, none of them could overcome the massive appeal of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, which continued to suck in crowds and ended up with $42 million for the weekend, with $221.3 million in the bank in the US alone so far.
The team behind The Muppets won’t be too disappointed though, as Kermit and co came back strong, earning $29.5 million for the three-day weekend and $42 million for the whole period since its release on Wednesday. That’s a big success, especially for a film that only cost around $40-$45 million in the first place. Third place was Happy Feet Two, which dropped just one place despite still lagging behind the first movie’s take. It made $13.4 million.
Arthur Christmas doesn’t look like it’ll be quite the big CGI success Aardman needed after Flushed Away, but it still managed to take in $12.7 million in fourth, with $17 million earned overall so far. That kept it ahead of Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, which had a much more limited opening (1,277 cinemas compared to the 3,000 plus each for Arthur and Muppets) and is looking to build word-of-mouth. It made $11.3 million for the weekend in fifth, and $15.3 million overall.
Sixth was Jack And Jill with $10.3 million, Immortals sank to seventh with $8.8 million, Puss In Boots was down to eighth and $7.4 million, while Tower Heist was ninth with $7.3 million. Rounding out the top 10, we have The Descendants, which nabbed $7.2 million and has $10.7 million so far.
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