Capping off a day of gorging on turkey by sitting on your ass for three hours in a dark theater is as American as oppressing the natives, and the country did its patriotic duty and turned out in hefty numbers to the theaters this Thanksgiving weekend. Grosses were up 10 percent over the last two years, proving once and for all that there is no recession, so be thankful for that.
Three new releases brought in hefty numbers, led by the Vince Vaughn/Reese Witherspoon holiday comedy Four Christmases, which took No. 1 with $31.68 million. Last week's No. 3, Bolt, saw a slight uptick in sales, moving up a spot with $26.6 million, just barely edging out last week's No. 1, Twilight, which suffered a 62 percent decline in receipts for a $26.37 million take. Quantum Of Solace dropped to No. 4 with $19.5 million, ahead of Baz Luhrmann's historical epic Australia, which made a less-than-epic debut at No. 5 with $14.82 million. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa made $14.5 million in its fourth week, placing it at No. 6 ahead of Transporter 3, which debuted with $12.3 million. Role Models and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas took the No. 8 and 9 spot with $5.24 million and $1.69 million, respectively. The Sean Penn-starring biopic Milk landed at No. 10 with $1.38 million, despite opening in only 36 theaters, resulting in a huge $38,361 per-screen average.
More detailed numbers can be found at boxofficemojo.com.