Hollywood continues to learn the power of the female audience for spending money. Despite two new, albeit independent releases—one starring Brad Pitt—the top box office earner was still The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2. The final segment in the vampire franchise earned $17.4 million in its third week, taking first place in this typically quiet weekend after Thanksgiving.
According to Box Office Mojo, Breaking Dawn is adding very nicely to the success of not just the Twilight series, but of Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment. The film, with $254.6 million overall domestic gross, is doing slightly better than its predecessors, and it marks the 11th weekend this year that Summit took the number one spot. The Expendables 2 and The Possession both dominated two weekends, Breaking Dawn now has three, and The Hunger Games held four number one spots.
The latest James Bond film, Skyfall, took second place this weekend with $17 million, while the Disney period drama Lincoln came in third with $13.5 million. Both films are in their fourth weeks in theatres. Skyfall is the 23rd Bond film and has grossed a whopping $246 million so far.
Disney’s Wreck-it Ralph is still holding its own after five weeks, earning just over $7 million, putting it in sixth place for the weekend. This is perhaps due to the dearth of children’s movies this holiday season, though Dreamworks’ Rise of the Guardians dipped slightly since last week, reaching fourth place with $13.5 million.
The Ang Lee-directed Life of Pi rounds out the top five, and continues to build audiences, bringing in $12 million in its second week. The Red Dawn reboot earned $6.5 million, putting it in eighth place, and the Denzel Washington vehicle Flight continues strongly after 5 weeks, holding the number nine spot and earning $4.5 million.
The two new releases this weekend, Brad Pitt’s Killing Them Softly, and the horror indie The Collection, entered the chart in seventh and tenth place respectively, the former earning $7 million, and the latter $3.4 million. Despite the small release and ultra-violent story of Softly, many expected that Pitt’s drawing power would at least make more of a dent than a seventh place opening weekend.
Ben Affleck’s Oscar-contending hit Argo (distributed by Warner Bros.) has passed the $100 million mark and is holding steady in 13th place. It is the first of the Oscar contenders to reach this mark, though Lincoln, with a current $83.7 million gross, is set to exceed that number in the coming weeks. Argo is also Affleck’s first $100 million-plus film since Daredevil (2003), according to Box Office Mojo.
Perhaps further proving women’s spending power in Hollywood, Anna Karenina and The Silver Linings Playbook are both doing well in their third weeks of limited release, marking the 12th and 11th spots respectively. Playbook, also an Oscar contender, has grossed $11 million thus far, and Karenina, with $4 million total, seems set to expand to a nationwide release.
Rounding out the top 10 films of the weekend were ``Wreck-It Ralph''($6.9 million); ``Killing Them Softly'' ($6.8 million); ``Red Dawn'' ($6.5 million); ``Flight'' ($4.5 million); and ``The Collection'' ($3.1 million).
