Everyone got something to eat at the movies over the Thanksgiving holidays, with five new studio releases combining for a healthy upturn in overall box office grosses. Seriously; you could just about hear the Hollywood execs groaning from the turkey-related tryptomine overdose on the living room couch.
Disney's "Enchanted" was the runaway winner, with $35 million over the weekend and a $50 mill five-day haul. A star got born, too: Amy Adams now sits atop the Internet Movie Database Starmeter.
But "Enchanted" was at 3,700 movie theaters and thus unavoidable; good word of mouth and positive reviews wrapped it up. More interesting is the appearance of buppie holiday comedy-drama "This Christmas" in the No. 2 spot, with $18.6 million over the weekend and $27 mill for the five-day span. At 1,858 theaters, that translates to a $14.5K per-theater-average -- higher than "Enchanted."
Actioner "Hitman" ($21 million), goopy family drama "August Rush" ($13 million), and Stephen King-derived horror film "The Mist" ($13 million) all played well to their respective post-prandial niches. In other words, in the weekend's feast they were the equivalent of the cranberry sauce, squash, and that peas-and-pearl onions dish your aunt makes that nobody eats. Except that this time someone ate it.
For further numbers, check out the Box Office Mojo chart and Leonard Klady at Movie City News.
