Columbia Pictures; SummitIt was Thanksgiving. Hollywood feasted.
Breaking Dawn Part 2 and Skyfall led a record-setting holiday-weekend box office that saw a solid start for Oscar-contender Life of Pi, a great expansion for Oscar-frontrunner Silver Linings Playbook and a less-bad-start-than-expected for the long-shelved Red Dawn remake.
The new and presumed final Twilight movie led the way with the franchise's biggest second weekend ever: $43.1 million, per estimates.
Breaking Dawn Part 2 upped its domestic total to $227 million. Worldwide, it zoomed past the half-billion mark, raising its overall total to $577.7 million and counting.
Skyfall put on its own demonstration with a fantastic $36 million Friday-Sunday, virtually even with last weekend's performance. Domestically, the word-of-mouth-driven blockbuster is now the highest-grossing James Bond of all-time, with $221.7 million and, yes, counting. Its latest worldwide total is $494 million.
Other highlights from a weekend of highlights:
- Steven Spielberg's Lincoln continued to look like a popular Oscar contender with a fat $25 million Friday-Sunday.
- Bradley Cooper's and Jennifer Lawrence's Silver Linings Playbook, which opened last weekend on 16 screens, added about 350 locations, and stormed the Top 10, with a $4.6 million Friday-Sunday that loomed large despite the comedy-drama's still-tiny overall number of theaters.
- Life of Pi, which opened everywhere and in 3-D in some places, put up a $22 million weekend; the grownup-skewing fantasy-adventure has grossed $30.2 million since opening Wednesday. All in all, a bigger start than the one by the grownup-skewing fantasy-adventure named Hugo, which opened on the same weekend last year.
- Red Dawn ($14.6 million Friday-Sunday) made slightly less in its opening than Chris Hemsworth's The Avengers and Josh Hutcherson's The Hunger Games, but forecasters had figured the teen-army film, shot three long years ago, would make even less. One fun factoid: Red Dawn played best in the red states.
The new animated family entry, Rise of the Guardians, lost the expectations game with a $24 million Friday-Sunday. Since opening the day before Thanksgiving, the reputedly $145 million film has grossed $32.6 million domestically.
In limited release, Keira Knightley's Anna Karenina ($831,732 Friday-Sunday) vied for a Top 10 spot on the strength of just 66 screens. Two other Oscar hopefuls, Hitchcock and Rust and Bone, impressed in their debuts: The Anthony Hopkins vehicle grossed $300,800 from just 17 theaters; the Marion Cotillard French film took in $30,196 from two locations.
Overall, this was Hollywood's biggest Thanksgiving box office on record, for both Wednesday-Sunday and Friday-Sunday grosses.
Here's the rundown of the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday domestic estimates as reported by the studios and Exhibitor Relations:
- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, $43.1 million
- Skyfall, $36 million
- Lincoln, $25 million
- Rise of the Guardians, $24 million
- Life of Pi, $22 million
- Wreck-It Ralph, $16.8 million
- Red Dawn, $14.6 million
- Flight, $8.6 million
- Silver Linings Playbook, $4.6 million
- Argo, $3.9 million