The kids are back in school, the leftovers are congealing in the fridge and you’ve already run through all the releases at your local multiplex. Such is life on the weekend after the Thanksgiving Holiday.  The upshot is that there isn’t much to talk about in terms of box office.  We’ve got holdovers as far as the eye can see - and they’re not holding very well at that.  In fact, overall box office is down 13% this weekend from 2009 levels when The Blind Side claimed first place.

Title

Weekend

Total

1

Tangled

$21,500,000

$96.5

2

Harry Potter 7A

$16,700,000

$244.2

3

Burlesque

$6,100,000

$26.9

4

Unstoppable

$6,100,000

$68.8

5

Love & Other Drugs

$5,700,000

$22.6

6

Megamind

$5,030,000

$136.7

7

Due Date

$4,215,000

$90.9

8

Faster

$3,829,000

$18.1

9

The Warrior’s Way

$3,051,000

$3.1

10

The Next Three Days

$2,650,000

$18.3

As expected, the trajectory of Tangled took it past Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 this weekend. Disney owes its first place fortunes to those higher 3D tickets and to the fact that the only other straight family film in release – Megamind – has now been around for five weeks.  Our number one film brought in an estimated $21.5 from its 3,603 theatres – a decline of 60% from its debut weekend.  Tangled is also running ahead of Disney’s 2007 Thanksgiving release Enchanted after two weeks in release: $96.5 million to Enchanted’s $70.

Harry Potter 7A fell an estimated 66% in its third weekend with an estimated weekend gross of $16.7 million. That’s a bigger third week drop than previous Potter pics, but with its total domestic take now topping $244 million, that news isn’t going to sting too badly.

The rest of the top ten fought over the scant box office leftovers: Burlesque used its higher screen count (3,037 locations) to grab third place with an estimated $6.1 million in its second weekend.  Love & Other Drugs was not far behind with $5.7 million from its 2,458 locations.  That is a drop of 49% and 41.5%, respectively.

I will, however, avoid last week’s faux pas by devoting a little more space to Faster.  CBS Film’s action flick fell a completely normal 55% in its second weekend.  This week’s estimate gives the film $3.8 million and a new domestic total of $18.1 million – a number that would be higher if their debut had been a bit more robust.  I didn’t even check how far Hitman fell in its second week, but I can tell you that 2009’s Ninja Assassin fell 62% in the week following its Thanksgiving debut.

The Warrior’s Way, the week’s sole new release, could barely break the top ten. Relativity’s action movie debuted on Friday in 1,622 locations and brought in an estimated weekend total of just over $3 million. That is significantly under the $4.7 million that Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li brought in its debut… and that film topped out at just $8.7 million domestic.  You may direct your comments below…

Finally, with all of the dull that is going on in the top ten, I would be remiss in not acknowledging that the real action is taking place down below… where my chart cannot reach.  Yes, the Oscar race is on and many of the contenders are showing life in their tiny, little releases.  First, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan debuted this weekend in 18 locations where it earned an estimated $1.3 million. Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours added 140 screens and brought in an additional $1.6 million from its total run in 433 locations.  And then there’s I Love You, Phillip Morris.  In its (long awaited) debut in 6 theatres, Phillip Morris earned an estimated $113,316.  Beat that, Little Fockers! Next week new movies should once again entice with the release of Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist.

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