After a slow start on Wednesday and Thursday, the domestic box office roared to life on Black Friday and ended with the highest five-day Thanksgiving frame of all time. Holdovers were the main course, with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Skyfall and Lincoln claiming the top three spots. But audiences also made room for new arrivals, including Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, the long-delayed Red Dawn remake and the CGI-animated Rise of the Guardians.

Though much of the East Coast is still a ruin, Hurricane Sandy did not dampen enthusiasm at the weekend box office. Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph was the easy winner with $49.1 million from 3,752 locations. In half as many venues, Paramount’s Flight beat all pre-release projections with its $25 million launch. And while Argo continued to exhibit amazing staying power in third, Universal’s The Man with the Iron Fists was less impressive. The martial arts debut earned an estimated $8.2 million from 1,868 runs for fourth place.

The animated series TRON: Uprising, debuting with a special preview on the Disney Channel on May 18^th before premiering on Disney XD on June 7^th, takes place after the 1982 feature film and before the events in TRON: Legacy. Produced in CG animation with a 2D aesthetic, the series follows the heroic journey of a new character named Beck (voiced by Elijah Wood), a young program who becomes the unlikely leader of a revolution inside the computer world of The Grid.  You can watch the first episode here.

At the press day for this highly anticipated new show, actress/singer Mandy Moore, who voices Mara, the lone voice of reason and Beck’s loyal best friend and fellow mechanic, talked about how her character fits into the TRON universe, what she thought when she saw how her character would look, what a big TRON fan her husband (singer/songwriter Ryan Adams) is, how excited she is about how cool the show has turned out, and that she’s more of a girl’s girl than her tomboy character. She also talked about writing songs for a new album, doing voice-over work and singing on another Disney animated show, called Sheriff Callie’s Wild West (for Disney Junior), what she looks for in a role now, and that she would definitely be up for a Tangled sequel. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

After two weeks spent chasing the superior numbers of New Moon, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 has finally achieved something that its predecessor could not: three weeks in a row on top of the domestic box office.

It may not have topped last year’s holiday in terms of totals, but Thanksgiving 2011 did prove bountiful for a handful of films.  Topping the list is Breaking Dawn Part 1 and its sophomore weekend estimate of $42 million and five-day holiday total of $62.3 million.  Meanwhile, The Muppets proved they still got game with a five-day total of $42 million.

If Black Friday’s estimates are any gauge, this year’s Thanksgiving weekend is going to be a bit of a downer.  Traditionally one of the biggest movie days of the year, 2011’s post-holiday Friday saw drops in both gross and attendance over a year ago.  To give you one example, this year’s 3D-animated Arthur Christmas performed about as well on its first Friday as last year’s 2D musical Burlesque. Up at the top, Breaking Dawn Part 1 continued to shine with an estimated $16.9 million.  That’s a decline of 75% from the film’s opening day, though the drop was expected given the front-heavy nature of The Twilight Saga series.  Last year’s big ‘Part 1’, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, managed to make about 20% more on its second Friday, putting 2011 at a bit of a disadvantage.  At number two with an estimated $12.2 million, The Muppets came in almost 35% behind 2010’s Tangled, though the latter did have 3D-pricing on its side.  The only film to buck the downward trend was Hugo.  Martin Scorsese’s 3D family-film earned $4.5 million on Friday – more than what it was projected to make just a few days ago.  More analysis tomorrow.

While it fell short of breaking a series record, there is no diminishing the continued success of The Twilight Saga.  The penultimate chapter in Summit Entertainment’s astoundingly popular franchise, Breaking Dawn Part 1 posted this year’s second highest weekend total (and the fifth highest of all time) with an estimated $139.5 million from 4,061 locations.

Tangled directors Byron Howard and Nathan Greno will continue the story of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi), and Maximus, The World’s Most Awesome Horse in the new short film Tangled Ever After.  Disney has sent out a press release announcing that the short film will play in front of Beauty and the Beast 3D.  In Tangled Ever After, Maximus and Pascal the Chameleon lose the wedding rings for Rapunzel and Flynn’s wedding and have to go on a frantic hunt to find the gold bands.  I’m sure it will be comical and cute like the movie, but I think it will be interesting to see how a modern Disney princess movie directly compares to a classic like Beauty and the Beast.

Hit the jump for the press release as well as the poster for Tangled Ever After.    The film Beauty and the Beast 3D opens January 13, 2012.

Tangled has the distinction of being the 50^th animated film to emerge from Walt Disney studios. Lot of miles there. From being the king of the animated world, to the loss of direction in the 70’s and 80’s to the boom of The Little Mermaid and the run of animated hits that followed, to the complete lack of direction again in the 21^st century. At this point you have no idea what to expect from the Mouse house, and often can expect better from Pixar. And yet Tangled is one of their better films, a charming version of the Rapunzel story, where the princess (Mandy Moore) doesn’t need rescuing as much as the would-be prince (Zachary Levi) does. Check out our Blu-ray review after the jump.

Disney’s acquisition of Marvel has brought about a rather unique collaboration: Alan Menken is reportedly writing a song/songs for Captain America: The First Avenger. One of Disney’s greatest assets for the past 20 years, the Oscar-nominated Menken is famed for writing the music for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas,and most recently, Tangled.  Badass Digest gleans from their source’s information that this music is specifically for when Captain America is in the USO.  So, instead of regaling the troops with the classic “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” their morale will be raised through some original material. Who would have thought that Chris Evans, who is playing the Captain/Steve Rogers, might have to practice his singing along with his stunt fighting?

Captain America: The First Avenger stars Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull, scheduled for release on July 22, 2011.  Hit the jump for more on Captain America, including the official synopsis.

What are the Oscars without a little pageantry?  As it’s been done in years prior, the Best Song nominees will be performed by the folks who sang them in the movie.  Gwyneth Paltrow will perform “Coming Home” from Country Strong; Randy Newman will perform “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3; songwriter Alan Menken will provide piano accompaniment to Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi for “I See the Light” from Tangled; and songwriter A.R. Rahman will join Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine to perform “If I Rise” from 127 Hours.

Hit the jump for the press release and to hear the songs.  The 83rd Academy Awards will be held on February 27th.

While the 3D format continues its move towards home entertainment with more and more titles being released on 3D Blu-ray every month, it looks like Disney is getting in on the action as well. The Walt Disney Company announced today that it plans to release at least fifteen films on 3D Blu-ray throughout 2011. Titles set to hit 3D home video include The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Nightmare Before Christmas, TRON: Legacy, and Tangled. Not only will the films be presented in 3D, but the special 3D Blu-ray release will come complete with 3D menus, 3D trailers, and an introduction to the world of Disney 3D from The Lion King characters Timon and Pumba. Executive Vice-President and General Manager of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Lori MacPherson had this to say:

As our contemporary library of 3D content continues to grow, and the original artists and filmmakers meticulously ‘dimensionalize’ their work for release on the Blu-ray 3D format, we will be offering movie-lovers the most incredible in-home entertainment experience they will ever have

Hit the jump for more, including the other Disney titles planned for a 3D Blu-ray release. [We've updated this story with the official press release]

As we enter 2011, Quentin Tarantino has revealed his top ten films of 2010.  The list includes the usual suspects (Toy Story 3, The Social Network) along with some fun surprises like Tangled and, shall we say “peculiar” surprises like Robin Hood.  Tarantino didn’t provide any comment on his choices, but said of his number ten pick, Enter the Void,

“Hands down best credit scene of the year? Maybe best credit scene of the decade. One of the greatest in cinema history.”

Hit the jump for Tarantino’s list along with a look at the opening credits for Enter the Void.

Though it’s a brand new year, we’ll be left cleaning up after 2010 for weeks to come.  After falling to second place on New Year’s Eve, Little Fockers managed to edge past True Grit to retain the box office crown for a second weekend in a row. All hail the king. Overall, 2010 will end up only slightly behind 2009’s record with over $10 billion in profits – due largely to early successes like Avatar and Alice and Wonderland, of course.  Nothing in the ass-end of the past year is even coming close to those titles in terms of dollars or attendance.

Disney is not a company known for giving away that which could be sold for a profit.  They’re certainly not known for that business approach when it comes to a major franchise like TRON: Legacy.  We’ve previously reported on the heavy merchandising the studio has done for the film, which includes a $478 “Clu Hobo Bag” and $795 “Quorra Couture Platform Sandals”.  But the studio is also offering goodies for the film which won’t break the bank.  On the Disney family page for the film, the studio offers Papercraft templates for light cycles, printable party invitations, coloring pages, and much more.  For parents looking for fun activities to do with their kids that doesn’t requires much more than a trip to an arts and crafts store, this is really wonderful.

Hit the jump for images of and links to the TRON: Legacy projects that Disney offers.