Veggie vampires or not, when the Twilight bloodsuckers sink their teeth into a box office they just will not let go. That's right, the toothsome teens of New Moon have held the number one spot at the US box office for a second week, and over the big Thanksgiving holiday, with a solid $42.5m.
That is, admittedly, a whopping 70% drop on last week, but it's still considered a win, giving the sequel a total of $230m in just ten days in the States - more than Twilight managed in its entire North American run. It's also managed $473.7m worldwide in those ten days, which you'd think would be a reason for the characters to stop moping, but somehow we doubt it. Hey, maybe they're just depressed that even drug dealers are trying to get onto the Twilight bandwagon now.
The big winner at the box office this weekend, however, was The Blind Side, the Sandra Bullock-starring sports movie that grossed a whopping $40.1m over the (three-day) weekend - 17.6% more than its (also impressive) opening tally last week. Usually films with a wide release only increase their opening weekend takings over the Christmas holiday, but apparently this tale of a middle-class family who take in a poverty-stricken teen who turns out to be a heck of a football player warmed the cockles of Thanksgiving hearts this weekend.
2012 added another $18m to its total for $138.8m to date, followed by the highest of the new releases: Old Dogs, with $16.8m over the three-day weekend and $24.1m over Thanksgiving. It's well behind the $40m opening of the last collaboration between star John Travolta and director Walter Becker, Wild Hogs.
The other new openers were Ninja Assassin, which took $21m over the five days and $13.1m over the weekend, and the distinctly uncheery adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, presumably released as a sort of counterprogramming to turkey dinners. That managed $1.5m on only 111 screens, but should go wider next week.
Also worthy of note was Fantastic Mr Fox, going wide after a very limited release and taking $7m over the weekend, and A Christmas Carol, which raised its takings by 30% to $16m and passed the $100m barrier.