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Breaking Dawn Holds Off Muppets

Breaking Dawn Part I Nears $500 million worldwide.

By Jarrod Sarafin     November 28, 2011


Walt Disney's Muppets are back in action
© Walt Disney/Bob Trate

 

Summit Entertainment once again controlled the box office landscape over the holiday courtesy of their returning champion, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I. Despite the release of two family movies on a weekend where most families come together across the nation, the studio found their latest installment in the vampire franchise sucking up another $62.3 million over the last five days.
 The first half of the last adventure also easily won the international box office race by grabbing an extra $71.5 million in international waters. The second victory—both domestic and foreign---has it nearing the $500 million global mark after only 10 days of release. The film’s domestic cume of $221.3 million has it slightly behind what The Twilight Saga: New Moon drew in during the same time period ($230 mil) but as the budget for their latest venture cost only $110 million to produce, you likely won’t see any suits complaining about the downtick.  
Family films controlled the rest of the top 5.
Walt Disney Pictures reintroduced The Muppets to a new generation of kids this weekend by taking down the 2nd place spot with $42 million in ticket sales for the five-day tally. It’s an impressive debut for the studio which shelled out only $45 million on the production itself.  The chiefs at Disney feel it was always about bringing the popular property back into the public eye.
"The entire goal was to bring back the Muppets, and this great opening signifies that we've done just that," said Dave Hollis, Disney's executive vice president of worldwide distribution.
Following in 3rd place was Warner Bros. Pictures’ animated sequel, Happy Feet Two. The George Miller-led vehicle managed another $18.4 million over the past five days---$13.4 mil of which came over the weekend---increasing the studio’s domestic gross to $43.8 million after 10 days of release. In a sign that the market is saturated with family films and various options for the average ticket buyer, the original Happy Feet managed to nearly pull that same amount in its first three days back in 2006. With another $14 million coming from foreign sales, the studio has a global score of $57.7 million after it first two weekends.
Sony Pictures jumped into the 4th spot for the holiday with the premiere of their latest animated adventure, Arthur Christmas. The pic opened up with $17 million from 3,376 venues across the country and another $11.9 million at the foreign box office race in 24 international markets. Overall, the $39.3 million global sum is setting this up to be a successful venture for Sony and their partner Aardman Entertainment. The budget is listed at only $95 million and experts agree that with its “Christmas” themed story, it will show longevity throughout the month of December.
And taking down the 5th place spot is Paramount Pictures’ tale Hugo. The first 3D family adventure from Martin Scorsese managed to find $15.4 million over its first five days of release. It’s a decent performance seeing how the studio opted to release the film in only 1,277 theaters across the nation. The jury is still out on whether the decision was wise since the budget is reportedly north of $150 million but for their part, Paramount suits are hopeful that with a expansion next weekend in a field with no new wide releases, the pic will find some legs.
"Not only were we on a fraction of the screens of our competitors, the marketing spend was managed carefully as we expand the film," said Paramount president of domestic marketing and distribution Megan Colligan.
In comparison to last year, the holiday box office was down 12 percent from Thanksgiving 2010 when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Disney's Tangled fought for the box office title.
 

Rank
Movie
Weekend
Theaters
Average
Total
Budget
1
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
$42.0 mil
4,066
$10,330
$221.3 mil
$110
2
The Muppets
$29.5 mil
3,440
$8,576
$42.0 mil
$45
3
Happy Feet Two
$13.4 mil
3,606
$3,716
$43.7 mil
----
4
Arthur Christmas
$12.7 mil
3,376
$3,762
$17.0 mil
$95
5
Hugo
$11.3 mil
1,277
$8,888
$15.3 mil
$150
6
Jack and Jill
$10.3 mil
3,029
$3,400
$57.4 mil
$79
7
Immortals
$8.8 mil
2,677
$3,287
$68.6 mil
$75
8
Puss in Boots
$7.4 mil
3,005
$2,479
$135.3 mil
$130
9
Tower Heist
$7.3 mil
2,474
$2,960
$65.8 mil
$75
10
The Descendants
$7.2 mil
433
$16,628
$10.7 mil
----

 
 
Friday, December 2, 2011 Releases:
No Wide Releases
Limited
Pastorela
Shame
Sleeping Beauty
Answers to Nothing
I Am Singh
Outrage
 

MOVIES REVIEWS

COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

Showing items 1 - 10 of 15
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fallensbane 11/28/2011 1:37:05 AM

Glad to see the muppets did as well as it did. It was a great movie which I intend to catch again before it leaves theatres.

vitieddie 11/28/2011 3:02:51 AM

Immortals

Not too bad. Visually stunning .... lots of action and nudity. What more can you ask for? ... Oh yes - a better plot ... anyways

3/5

 

ultrazilla2000 11/28/2011 3:25:11 AM

Saw the Immortals this weekend as well and rather enjoyed it...far better than I was expecting.  Eye candy in every catagory!  We really wanted to see The Muppets though, but as it was for a friend's Bday, and he was the one to choose, we went with Immortals.  I still hope to see Muppets soon, but don't regret Immortals at all.

I went with my parents to see Arthur Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving.  I wasn't sure about this one, as most of these CGI animation movies annoy me...but we went because an old friend from high school was involved in the production (and our parents are friends as well).  It was fun seeing his name in the credits as well as his newborn son in the baby list.  As for the movie itself?  A GOD AWFUL Justin Bieber music video before the movie almost killed it for me...but luckily the movie itself turned out to be rather fun.  Great humor and fun characters, with only minor annoyance towards the end (there always seems to be a section of these movies where things just get out of control!).  I didn't regret seeing it, and do recommend it to other families this Christmas season.

Dazzler 11/28/2011 4:12:45 AM

No wide releases for this weekend? 

I saw Arthur Christmas, just ok, looks like it will bomb.

Hugo was a snooze, big bomb there....

Muppets ruled!  I was hoping for a Pigs in space seg in movie.  Or some famous people in skits like in the old show.  Makes me want a dvd collection of the old stuff. 

 

wessmith1966 11/28/2011 6:30:49 AM

We went to see The Muppets and I loved it because I'm just an big geek when it comes to the muppets. Surprisingly, the kids didn't like it as much as my girlfriend and I did. Maybe it's because the kids grew up in the CGI age and muppets are just too old school for them.

The kids went to see Arthur Christmas with friends and liked it. I was glad I didn't have to go.

iceknight52 11/28/2011 6:43:58 AM

The Muppets were great. Plan on seeing it again before it leaves the theaters.

karas1 11/28/2011 7:52:02 AM

I saw J Edgar on Friday.  Worst old age makeup imaginable.  That absolutely killed the movie for me.  Also, it was kind of pretentious.  It had Oscar bait written all over it.

I see Tower Heist is still in the top 10.  Bravo!  Since the movie takes place during the Thanksgiving Day Parade it's appropriate to see it on Thanksgiving weekend.
 

karas1 11/28/2011 7:53:45 AM

BTW, why isn't there a Mania review for Hugo?  From commercials that looks like a fantasy film and in Mania's perview.

shac2846 11/28/2011 8:14:03 AM

 Hugo was not a snooze fest, I guess it depends on what your after. The film was excellent and the 3d was the best I've seen since avatar. They shot the film in 3d so no surprise but I guess it was the way Martin Scorsese shot the movie. There are lots of nice tracking shots through the clock areas that do justice to the 3d filmming. Plus I don't want to give too much of the plot away but it is a tribute to the pioneer of fantasy genre filmmaking. It was totally worth seeing in theatres but I guess if you are an action junkie you will definitely be let down. But yes karas there is plenty of fantasy and I was wondering why it didn't get a review when happy feet 2 did. I think it's a safe bet that Hugo is at least a best picture nominee. 

Also saw Muppets which was also great. Good weekend for movies, hasn't been in awhile. 

millean 11/28/2011 10:54:17 AM

It is kind of funny to me how we look at box office receipts.  Using this week as a (kind of poor) example, which would Summit Entertainment rather have happen:

A) Have Breaking Dawn pull in $30M & beat the Muppets at $29.5M

or

B) Have Breaking Dawn pull in $42M yet finish second to the Muppets if they had $45M

 

I'm sure the studios would rather pull in more $$$ despite finishing 2nd.  Yet that is kind of backwards to how us average box office analysts seem to think.

And thus concludes my random thought of the week!

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