The long, always competitive Thanksgiving weekend is over, and Four Christmases has decked the halls with a big box office victory, easily outpacing Twilight, Australia, and all the rest of the movies at the multiplex along the way.
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon’s comedy won the robust weekend with a much-better-than-expected $46.7 mil from Wednesday through Sunday, according to early estimates. That makes it the third-best Thanksgiving weekend opener ever, after Toy Story 2 ($80.1 mil) and last year’s Enchanted ($49.1 mil). The film also grossed a hefty $31.7 mil over the traditional three-day weekend (and fair warning, I’m going to be giving both five-day and three-day totals in this report, so get focused — you know, drink some coffee before reading on, or something). That’s Vaughn’s top premiere sum since The Break-Up’s $39.2 mil two and a half years ago, and Witherspoon’s best bow since Sweet Home Alabama’s $35.6 mil more than six years back.
Credit a somewhat older, female audience that gave the movie a so-so CinemaScore grade of B. But, as I have said before, all of those statistics don’t matter much when you consider one important fact: With the word “Christmas” in the title, this film is sure to hang on well into the yuletide season.
Twilight (No. 2) was next in the five-day rankings, with $39.5 mil, although its three-day weekend total was a more disappointing $26.4 mil, a steep 62 percent drop from its huge debut a week ago. Still, the Stephenie Meyer saga continues to draw in teen girls, and it crossed the $100 mil mark in just eight days (its domestic haul is $119.7 mil), so there’s still plenty of good news there.
Third place over the long weekend went to Bolt, which grossed $36 mil from Wednesday through Sunday, and $26.6 mil in the three-day frame (sure enough, that’s more than Twilight banked in the same period). Thus, Disney’s animated feature enjoyed a rare thing in box office land: A week-to-week gain. Bolt
was up 1 percent from its debut sum of $26.2 mil last time around. So,
yeah, get accustomed to seeing this film in your local movie listings
for weeks to come.
Quantum of Solace (No. 4) held strong with $28.1 mil over
five days and $19.5 mil over three; its domestic sum is a stellar
$142.1 mil to date. The Nicole Kidman-Hugh Jackman-Baz Luhrmann epic
spectacle, Australia, rounded out the top five with an
unspectacular $20 mil over five days and just $14.8 mil over three
(this despite an A- CinemaScore grade from a largely older-woman
audience). And Transporter 3 (No. 7) was also an afterthought with $18.5 mil from Wednesday through Sunday and $12.3 mil on the three-day weekend.
Indeed, there’s no need to waste time talking about those films when we can applaud Gus Van Sant’s limited-release biopic Milk,
which cracked the top 10 while playing in only 36 theaters. The Sean
Penn starrer grossed $1.9 mil over the five-day frame and $1.4 mil from
Friday through Sunday, a marvelous average of $38,375 per venue.
Overall, the cumulative box office total was up about 4 percent from Thanksgiving weekend a year ago, when Enchanted and This Christmas led the way. And if you’ll excuse me now, I’m going to start work on a movie I’ve been thinking about making — it’s called Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, and although I only have a title, I know it’s gonna be a blockbuster.
More box office news:
Four Christmases dominates Thanksgiving box office
Box Office Preview: Can Twilight hold off Four Christmases and Australia?
Twilight sinks its teeth into a blockbuster debut
Quantum of Solace stirs up a win
Holiday films to receive season’s greetings, beatings
Third place over the long weekend went to Bolt, which grossed $36 mil from Wednesday through Sunday, and $26.6 mil in the three-day frame (sure enough, that’s more than Twilight banked in the same period). Thus, Disney’s animated feature enjoyed a rare thing in box office land: A week-to-week gain. Boltwas up 1 percent from its debut sum of $26.2 mil last time around. So,yeah, get accustomed to seeing this film in your local movie listingsfor weeks to come.
Quantum of Solace (No. 4) held strong with $28.1 mil overfive days and $19.5 mil over three; its domestic sum is a stellar$142.1 mil to date. The Nicole Kidman-Hugh Jackman-Baz Luhrmann epicspectacle, Australia, rounded out the top five with anunspectacular $20 mil over five days and just $14.8 mil over three(this despite an A- CinemaScore grade from a largely older-womanaudience). And Transporter 3 (No. 7) was also an afterthought with $18.5 mil from Wednesday through Sunday and $12.3 mil on the three-day weekend.
Indeed, there’s no need to waste time talking about those films when we can applaud Gus Van Sant’s limited-release biopic Milk,which cracked the top 10 while playing in only 36 theaters. The SeanPenn starrer grossed $1.9 mil over the five-day frame and $1.4 mil fromFriday through Sunday, a marvelous average of $38,375 per venue.
Overall, the cumulative box office total was up about 4 percent from Thanksgiving weekend a year ago, when Enchanted and This Christmas led the way. And if you’ll excuse me now, I’m going to start work on a movie I’ve been thinking about making — it’s called Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, and although I only have a title, I know it’s gonna be a blockbuster.
More box office news:
Four Christmases dominates Thanksgiving box office
Box Office Preview: Can Twilight hold off Four Christmases and Australia?
Twilight sinks its teeth into a blockbuster debut
Quantum of Solace stirs up a win
Holiday films to receive season’s greetings, beatings
Comments (1-30) of 124 Add your comment
Two Notes: Australia was playing in considerably fewer theaters than the top films(4xmas=3,110 vs. 2642 for Australia)
As for Milk, that movie was playing only in the most homocentric areas. Don’t expect much there when the film expands it’s release.
The studio shouldnt be to worried about Australia– many people that i know have seen it and they said it was amazing. Word of mouth will carry it for a couple of weeks to come.( fact: it maintained its saturday gross the same as its friday, while most movies tend to derease by 6-10%)
And its an epic historical movie, which means big $$$ overseas. And twilight proved (finally) to EW that it is just a mortal mvie, not the next harry potter, because if it keeps going at this pace, its not even going to top 180 million by the end of its run, while harry potter 4 already made 200 million over its first 4 days. And Bolt– good legs mate. it will kep on going strong for at least another month. This christmas– wow EW you underestimated this one. It looked like a hit from the begining, and with 46.7 million it dethroned your precious twilight after only one week. Gobble gobble everyone enjoy their last day of break
Someone might want to correct this. According to Box Office Mojo and Rotten Tomatoes, Bolt outstripped Twilight by about 200,000, making Bolt the number two movie, and Twilight number three.
Also keep in mind, due to its nearly 3 hour running time, Australia gets fewer showings than the other flicks. The show I was at, the theater was packed, so could carry for a bit, particuarly overseas.
Jink, that comes across as a jaded or cynical comment. People won’t be interested in seeing a film about a champion for equal rights because the equal rights happen to be for gays?…I would think the topic would resonate with all film-goers, despite the sexual orientation of the central character…silly me
Way to soften the blow to your bruised ego over the free fall of that piece of garbage Twilight by minimizing the success of 4 Christmases. Really? Any movie with Christmas in the title is an automatic winner? That’s just a weak or lazy argument. And check your figures again. Bolt is #2. Something else to cry about. And Jink, pull your head out of your backward, homophobic ass.
Thank god the love blizzard that has been going on in the EW offices for Twilight might finally come to an end! It couldn’t even take down the second place spot in its second weekend…looks like the first place prediction was a bit off, eh?
Oh please, now we will hear from the Baz or Nicole fanatics all of the excuses as to why Australia didn’t do better.
Titanic (over 3 hours long)
Opening Weekend: $28,638,131
(2,674 theaters, $10,710 average)
Australia
Opening Weekend: $14,815,000
(2,642 theaters, $5,607 average)
According to Box Office Mojo, Bolt actually made more than Twilight, by about $200,000. I’d redo my numbers if I were you.
It’s a good thing they already greenlit New Moon, eh, because it’s probably going to limp to $150 million.
My theater for Australia was actually pretty packed. I’m not making excuses for its numbers, but I think word of mouth might help it, and it’ll get good international play.
As for Four Christmases, if you guys weren’t salivating over Twilight, you’d know that a holiday comedy starring two likable, bankable leads would do well. It ain’t rocket science.
I also predicted last week that Bolt’s strong word of mouth would help it (it apparently did), and that Twilight would take a steep tumble.
um…Twilight made 39.5 million while Bolt made 36 million. last time i checked, 39.5 is more than 36.
Ouch for Twilight. So much for it being a “pop culture phenomenon.” On the bright side, at least EW will ease up on the coverage.
illiterates below me. Learn to read, he even stated in the collumn to take ur coffee so ud understand, he placed them by the 5 day weekend, not fri-sun. So why’ll the amatuer boxofficemojo says bolt came in at 2nd above twilight. They only counted the 3 day weekend. In the collumn above he even said “better than twilight 3 day sum” u people disgust me with ur negative, unwarranted comments
Lets hope the EW gods ear you phil!!! ENOUGH WITH TWILIGHT ALREADYY!
love or hate twilight, its not doing too bad for a movie that only cost $37 mil to make.
Thank god Twilight dropped like a stone. And yeah, Australia is REALLY long so it can play about 1/3 the times as other things. 20m is okay as long as it keeps on truckin’
I can’t beleive that 4 Christmases crap came in first. What garbage starring two of the most annoying worthless actors in Hollywood. People are stupid.
Twilight dropped like a stone?? Are you even reading the figures?? Four Christmases made $46.7 million – but Twilight was close behind at $39.5 million — that’s only a difference of $7.2 million. But on its opening weekend, Twilight made $70 million — which is way more than Four Christmases’ opening!!!! Yes, I WOULD call that a phenomenon!!!!!
Yeah, Anthony. The majority of people measure the 3-day weekend. Those are the figures they are referring to. Twilight lost get over it and yourself.
Bolt is a better movie than Twilight also, at least it’s geared towards an older demographic.
I have to agree!! I would watch Twilight before 4 Christmas’s.
“Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas…”
That made me LOL.
I hope now EW can lay off this “Twilight is phenomenon!” thing
Twilight made more opening weekend then 4 Christmases. also, ouch at Bolt and Australia
I saw Australia opening day. It was amazing!
Joshua Rich is a God Awful Worthless Writer , just liek 4 Christmases is a God Awful Worthless Movie
Four Christmases was one of the worse movies I’ve seen all year. Twilight was even better and I’m not a fan !
SO PEOPLE DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON FOUR CHRISTMASES OR EVEN THAT BOLT MOVIE WHICH IS LIKE EVERY OTHER MOVIE AND JUST WATCH TWILIGHT IT WAS BETTER THAN THOSE TWO !!
Whatever Twilight made more all week than Bolt and wow 200000 more !
I’m watching Twilight every weekend till it goes away so Summit add my 100 dollars to your total !!
TWILIGHT WAS AWESOME NOT PERFECT BUT GOOD ENOUGH AND EXPECT NEW MOON TO BE WAY BETTER !!!! and don’t hate were use to it and it doesn’t make a difference what you say !!!
LOVE MY TWILIGHT !!!
Bolt wasn’t better than Twilight are you kidding me ? I’ m a guy who went and saw both and thought Bolt was annoying or maybe it was Miley’s voice but it was like every other disney movie.
Why are you making fun of Twilight it’s made it’s money SO SHUT THE HELL UP !
It wasn’t as great as the book but it was worth the money !
Four Christmas, Transporters and Australia put together couldn’t beat Twilight it’s first week so DON’T HATE !!
And if the movie actually had EVERY TWILIGHT FAN LOVING IT WE WOULDN’T EVEN BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION !
Don’t compare Titanic to Australia ! Australia wasn’t that good and I see why it only made 14 million.