barnesgonzo: Thanksgiving for Twilight and Skyfall

Monday, November 26, 2012

Thanksgiving for Twilight and Skyfall

The biggest holiday box office figures ever found Twilight still at the top, 3D animation rules and Skyfall is a bona fide US smash

We all know about the absurdity of Hollywood box office, a wild frontier of numeric spin in a business notorious for its dazzling lack of apparent commercial viability. Studio executives scream triumphant numbers one week, hide behind an espresso machine the next, all the while failing to make meaningful comparisons or adjust for inflation or varying economies of scale. Basically, the business of box office lacks perspective.

Having said that, my duty is to report that the preceding five days have just recorded the biggest US Thanksgiving holiday weekend in history. The box office of all the movies in release from 21-25 November amounted to approximately $288m, which hit the unadjusted $258.6m previous record set in 2009 out of the park.

Adjusted for inflation, the accomplishment remains impressive, albeit not quite as emphatic. That 2009 figure translates into $278.8m by today's standards. And let's not forget that the current top 10 includes Ang Lee's Life of Pi through Fox, DreamWorks Animation's Rise of the Guardians and Disney's Wreck-It Ralph – a trio of releases that will have cost moviegoers more than usual to see because theatre-owners charge ticket premiums when they want us to wear silly 3D goggles. As far as I can tell, there were no major 3D releases on active duty in a meaningful way over Thanksgiving 2009.

Nonetheless this was a good session and what is undisputable is the depth of quality of the movies in the top 10. But first, credit to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, which held on to gold medal position in its second weekend thanks to a $43.1m three-day and $64m five-day haul. Box office dropped quite a bit from the first weekend's numbers and I'll bet that's because the Twihards have seen the movie twice already and once you've sated the appetite of that formidable fanbase there aren't that many people left who care. Still, the $226.9m running total is nothing to sniff at, even if there is some way to go before the movie catches up with the last three entries. Eclipse is the champion on $300.5m.

The big news of the week, or at least the earth-shattering development as far as British cinematic icons go, is that Skyfall has reached $221.7m after three weekends. This means that Sam Mendes, bless his cotton socks, has steered James Bond to his first $200m-plus box office performance in North America after almost 50 years of trying. Skyfall is a bona fide smash and has notched up around $568m internationally and $790m worldwide. There's plenty left in the tank and we should not act surprised if Bond crosses $275m in North America and reaches $900m worldwide. Shakens and stirreds all round.