Breaking Dawn Pt 1 Tops US Weekend B-O

NOV 21, 2011 - While it wasn't quite able to reach the series high mark, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1's outstanding estimated US$139.5 million opening indicated that the sexy teen vampires are as popular as ever. What does appear to have lost some of its appeal, however, is dancing penguins: Happy Feet Two struggled to even open to half as much as its popular 2006 predecessor. Overall box office was up around 14 percent to at least US$221 million, and the weekend could wind up ranking as the fifth-highest on record.

Breaking Dawn's estimated US$139.5 million opening is second-best among Twilight movies behind 2009's New Moon ($142.7 million). That's a small gap, though, and Breaking Dawn still managed to claim fifth place on the all-time opening weekend chart behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 3 and New Moon.

Immortals plummeted 62 percent to an estimated US$12.3 million. That's an improvement over August's Conan the Barbarian (68 percent), but it's off from Clash of the Titans (57 percent) and 300 (54 percent). Through 10 days in cinemas, the fantasy epic has earned just shy of US$53 million.

Here are the Top 5 North American B-O studio estimates for Nov 18-20, 2011 weekend, in terms of rank, (previous week ranking), Movie name (studio), Weekend takings in USD, (Cumulative gross, USD) and week on chart, courtesy of Boxofficemojo. (US$1=RM3)


1. (-) Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt 1 (Summit) $139.5 million ($139.5 million) 1

2. (-) Happy Feet Two (WB) $22.0 million ($22.0 million) 1

3. (1) Immortals (Relativity) $12.2 million ($52.9 million) 2

4. (2) Jack and Jill (Sony) $12.0 million ($41,0 million) 2

5. (3) Puss in Boots (Dreamworks) $10.7 million ($122.3 million) 4