Bella Swan, James Bond and Abraham Lincoln joined forces to lift Hollywood to a record Thanksgiving cash bonanza at the US box office.
With a strong December line-up ahead, Hollywood has resumed its record revenue pace for the year after a brief box-office lull in late summer and early autumn
Kristen Stewart’s finale as Bella in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 was No. 1 again with $64 million (€49 million) during the five-day holiday stretch that began on Wednesday, according to studio estimates.
Daniel Craig’s Bond adventure Skyfall came in at No. 2 with $51 million (€39.3 million), while Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg’s Civil War saga Lincoln finished third with $34.1 million (€26.2 million). According to box-office tracker Hollywood.com, the three films paced Hollywood to an all-time Thanksgiving week best of about $290 million (€223.5 million) from Wednesday to Sunday.
That tops the previous record of $273 million (€210 million) over Thanksgiving in 2009, when The Twilight Saga: New Moon led the weekend. This Thanksgiving was also a huge 25 per cent jump from a year ago, when domestic revenues were a weak $232 million (€178 million) as some big holiday releases fizzled.
With a strong December line-up ahead, Hollywood has resumed its record revenue pace for the year after a brief box-office lull in late summer and early autumn.
Domestic revenues for 2012 are at $9.75 billion (€7.5 billion), putting Hollywood potentially on track for its first $11 billion (€8.4 billion) year, which would beat the 2009 record of $10.6 billion (€8.1 billion), said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
“We’re barrelling towards a record-breaking box-office year,” Mr Dergarabedian said. “It’s built on the back of just a lot of really strong movies that have come out over the past few weekends. It bodes very well for the rest of the holidays.”
The Twilight finale, Skyfall and Lincoln finished in the same top-three rankings for the second straight weekend as new releases were unable to dislodge the holdovers.
Leading the newcomers was Paramount and DreamWorks Animation’s animated tale Rise of the Guardians at No. 4 with $24 million (€18.4 million) for the weekend and $32.6 million (€25.1 million) since opening on Wednesday.
Close behind at No. 5 was director Ang Lee’s shipwreck saga Life of Pi at No. 5 with $22 million (€16.9 million) over the weekend.