Despite the onslaught of several new challengers arriving across the long Thanksgiving weekend in the US, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 rose triumphant once again, topping the box office with $50.3 million, which means its total US gross is now in the region of $220 million after two weeks.
By far the strongest competition came from Disney’s new animated adventure, Tangled, with the rebranded Rapunzel letting down its hair to the tune of $49.1 million and scoring a solid success for the Mouse House that will have John Lasseter and co wiping their brows with some relief. The movie’s total over the five-day Thanksgiving period pans out to $69 million.
That pushed Megamind down to third, though DreamWorks’ super villain is staying fairly strong, adding $12.8 million over the weekend. The ‘toons kept Burlesque from bumping and grinding its way any higher than fourth place, with a total Thanksgiving take of $17.1 million, which would be pretty respectable in any normal weekend. Rounding out the top five is Unstoppable, which is still chugging away, adding $11.7 million to its now $60.7 million total.
Ed Zwick’s attempt to break away from Big Historical Drama (even though the movie’s still a period piece since it’s set in the 1990s) with Love and Other Drugs wasn’t quite as strong as he might have hoped despite blanket coverage – or should that be un-coverage? – of the Jake Gyllenhaal/Anne Hathaway nude scenes. The movie arrived in sixth with $14 million across the five-day period.
That was enough to beat up Faster, however, with US company CBS Films licking its wounds with yet another quiet opening at seventh. The Dwayne Johnson/Billy Bob Thornton-starring action thriller made $12.2 million through the five days. Its one big advantage? A thrifty $24 million budget. In eighth place we find Due Date, which took $7.3 million over three days, while ninth was the quickly-falling Russell Crowe thriller The Next Three Days, which took in $4.8 million. At 10th sits Morning Glory, which prepares to leave the top 10 with $4 million from this weekend and $26.4 million total in the US so far.
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