'Twilight' keeps shining with US$42m second weekend

LOS ANGELES (AP):

The latest Twilight movie has plenty of daylight left with a second-straight win at the weekend box office.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 took in US$42 million domestically over the three-day weekend and US$62.3 million in the five-day Thanksgiving boom time from Wednesday to yesterday. That raised its domestic total to US$221.3 million, while the Summit Entertainment release added US$71.5 million overseas to lift the international total to US$268 million and the worldwide take to US$489.3 million.

Debuting at No. 2 was Disney's family flick The Muppets, with US$29.5 million for the three-day weekend and US$42 million over the five-day holiday haul.

Three other family films rounded out the top-five: the Warner Bros sequel, Happy Feet Two at No. 3 with a three-day total of US$13.4 million and US$18.4 million for five days; Sony's animated comedy Arthur Christmas at No. 4 with US$12.7 million for three days and US$17 million for five days; and Paramount's epic adventure Hugo at No. 5 with US$11.4 million for three days and US$15.4 million for five days.

Between Breaking Dawn and the blitz of family films, analysts thought Hollywood had a shot at record revenue over Thanksgiving, one of the year's busiest weekends at movie cinemas. But viewers did not come in anywhere close to record numbers.

"I was pretty surprised by this. I just thought this was the perfect combination of films in the marketplace," said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "Maybe there was just too much out there."

Domestic revenue totalled US$234 million from Wednesday to yesterday, well below the US$273 million record set two years ago, when The Twilight Saga: New Moon led the Thanksgiving weekend, according to Hollywood.com. Receipts also fell short of last Thanksgiving's US$264 million haul, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 finished on top.

Studio executives concede it's growing harder to lure fans into cinemas given all the portable games, devices and other electronics people have to fill up their entertainment time. A so-so Thanksgiving on a weekend with such a good variety of movies could be a sign that Hollywood simply has to live with diminished expectations.

Meaningful and fresh

"I don't know that choice is ever a bad thing, and in terms of a weekend for families, this is one of the best," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney, which brought The Muppets back to the big screen after a 12-year absence. "The challenge is breaking through and being relevant and meaningful and fresh enough to take the more finicky customers and have them choose you."

Disney reported that The Muppets drew a good mix of families and couples without children who fondly remember Kermit, Miss Piggy and the rest of the gang on The Muppet Show. The film stars Jason Segel and Amy Adams as fans helping to reunite the Muppets for a telethon to save their decaying studio.

Breaking Dawn was holding close to the pattern set by New Moon two years ago, though domestic revenues were off slightly. Factoring in higher ticket prices since New Moon, the audience shrank even further for Breaking Dawn.

"I think the audience has changed a bit. Everybody's grown a little older, and I guess we lose a few of our patrons to age," said Richie Fay, head of distribution for Summit.

With no big new releases coming next weekend, though, Breaking Dawn has a shot at making up some ground, Fay said.

Happy Feet Two has failed to live up to its Academy Award-winning predecessor, a blockbuster that took in nearly US$200 million domestically. The sequel about dancing penguins has managed just US$43.8 million since opening November 18, a 10-day total that barely matches the opening-weekend gross of the 2006 original.

Arthur Christmas, from the British animation unit Aardman that made Chicken Run and the Wallace and Gromit films, has long-haul potential because of its good reviews and holiday story line. The voice cast includes James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie and Jim Broadbent in a Christmas Eve romp about a child's present that falls through the cracks in Santa Claus' high-tech delivery operation.

"To have the one picture that really is kind of carrying the torch as a Christmas picture really bodes well for the future," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony.

Long-term hopes

Distributor Paramount has similar long-term hopes for Martin Scorsese's Hugo, which also has great reviews. Based on a children's book, Hugo follows the adventures of an orphan boy who tends the clocks in a Paris train station and becomes caught up in unravelling a mystery that connects a surly old man (Ben Kingsley) and a mechanical automaton the youth is trying to repair.

Paramount scaled back Hugo from a full wide release over Thanksgiving, opening it in 1,277 cinemas, about a third the number for most other top movies. The studio plans to roll the film out more gradually, spreading its marketing budget over the coming weeks to capitalise on the critical word of mouth and potential awards buzz leading up to the January 24 Oscar nominations.

Critics have praised Hugo for Scorsese's dazzling use of 3-D. Unlike 3-D fatigue that set in for some other recent movies, whose 3-D business dipped below half of total revenues, Hugo audiences have been willing to pay an extra few dollars to see it in three dimensions. About 75 per cent of the film's revenue came from 3-D screenings, according to Paramount.

"People are reading the reviews that say, 'You've got to see it in 3-D,' and they're going out and voting with their dollars," said Don Harris, head of distribution at Paramount.

In narrower release, the Marilyn Monroe drama My Week with Marilyn opened solidly with a US$1.8 million weekend and US$2.1 million since opening Wednesday. The Weinstein Co release stars Michelle Williams as Monroe during her tumultuous time filming Laurence Olivier's The Prince and the Showgirl.

Playing in 244 cinemas, My Week with Marilyn had a weekend average of US$7,266 a cinema, compared with a US$10,330 average in 4,066 locations for Breaking Dawn.