Many hemmed and hawed over whether or not Jason Segel's unburial of the Muppets would manage to find success in a world where children are more savvy and mature, more prone to entertainments the likes of Justin Bieber and talking cars voiced by Larry the Cable Guy and whatever else. Well, the good news is that indeed, audiences did find their way to The Muppets this holiday weekend. The bad news? There weren't as many of them as there were Twi-hards.
Indeed, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 managed to continue its streak of insane popularity, holding onto the top slot with $62.3 million worth of cooing, gasping lady people ponying up for tickets for their entire families so they could show them that, no, they aren't sad, desperate, lonely spinsters in training, and that this whole Twilight thing is actually really great! I'm guessing many a family bond was broken irreparably this weekend.
That left Muppets to second place, albeit a strong second place with $42 million for the five day period. That's a good opening for a slightly more adult-oriented family film competing with three other family films, two of which opened the very same weekend. As it happens, it looks as though those remaining three films split the difference for the weekend, with Happy Feet Two remaining strong at third place ($18.4 million), and Arthur Christmas and Hugo taking fourth ($17 million) and fifth ($15.3 million) respectively. Hugo's one bonus is that it appeared on a mere 1,277 screens (compared, say, with the 4,066 Twilight is currently showing on), making for a much higher per-screen average than most other films this weekend.
As for the limited release market, a number of noteworthy films hit screens this weekend to satiate the elderly, art-film minded family members who couldn't bear to go watch another one of those damn "cartoons" the grandkids like so much. It looks like the strongest catnip for old people this weekend was My Week With Marilyn, a fact backed up by my dad's friends squawking about it breathlessly at the dinner table during the holiday, and the $2.1 million it made on just 244 screens. While A Dangerous Method and The Artist both debuted on a mere four screens, each film respectively took in an insane $241,000 and $210,000, both good for well over $50,000 per-screen.
And now for a five-day top ten list, in which the numbers will look a lot bigger (and, thus, more exciting) than usual.
 | 1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 $62.3 million / $221.3 million |
 | 2. The Muppets $42 million / NEW |
 | 3. Happy Feet Two $18.4 million / $43.8 million |
 | 4. Arthur Christmas $17 million / NEW |
 | 5. Hugo $15.4 million / NEW |
 | 6. Jack & Jill $14.1 million / $57.4 million |
 | 7. Immortals $12.5 million / $68.6 million |
 | 8. Puss in Boots $10.4 million / $135.3 million |
 | 9. Tower Heist $10.2 million / $65.4 million |
 | 10. The Descendants $9.2 million / $10.7 million |
Dropped Out: J. Edgar; A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas; In Time
Source: Box Office Mojo
Oh fuck Twilight. Seriously, you can't escape your vampire sex fantasy for the Muppets?
I'm upset enough to not notice how high Jack and Jill still is.
The Muppets was awesome. I really enjoyed it.
With a budget of $170,000,000 I suspect the Hugo is going to be one of the biggest bombs of this year.
Holy shit i didn't even realize it cost that much. Man hopefully it has some legs. Was a good movie.
I could probably find out the winner of the Box Office Winner's league, but it's far more exciting to see it in video form. There were a lot of kid's movie out this week, because if I were a kid, I would have a hard time choosing between Arthur Christmas, Puss In Boots and Happy Feet 2.
I hope Hugo suceeds.
Some time this week i'm gonna gather together as many friends as I can who will admit that kermit and ms piggy are the second greatest love story ever told (buttercup and westley are #1) and go check out the muppets. I am excited
To each their own. Between throwing money at Black Friday (Month) and throwing money at movies or throwing it massive shooter games, . . . we seem to be a world of hurt looking for diversions wherever they may roam. At least one group didn't use pepper spray.
Holy shit Hugo cost $170,000,000?!?! With a budget like that I have seen almost no marketing whatsoever. I was going to see it for Chloe Moretz alone but now sounds like I'll have to drag the whole family along both because it's good and also so that it'll make some of its money back.
On the other hand I'm incredibly pleased that The Muppets did so well. It's sure to recoup its budget by next weekend and then it's all gravy. Was a great return to form. The Muppet Show sequence alone was worth the price of admission.
Everybody made money! Yay! Except for Twilight, Jack & Jill, Happy Feet Two and Tower Heist (that's still here? REAAAAALY?)
As for Hugo, I really have no idea what you're talking about Alex. Why, exactly, was the ad campaign abysmal? It looked really cool. I know you and Rorie are a fan of busting out the word, "cloying" for anything family friendly/animated/not-Oscar Bait, but it looked like a genuinely charming - and dare I say, genuinely magical, in a way few films have been since the early 90's - film in every ad I saw for it.
Twilight dropped 70% from last weekend so it will probably fall out of the top ten list in about 3 weeks or so if the 70% fall continues.
Can't say I'm surprised.
Happy Feet Two's numbers aren't as impressive as they might seem. The movie has made only about less than half of what the first movie made in the same time period (99 million to 43 million), and that includes higher ticket prices & 3D sales. It'd take an absolute miracle to make $100 million in America, and for a heavily promoted sequel to a film that made over $400 million worldwide with no effort, that's not enough.
I saw Muppets twice and Hugo once. I am much fonder of Muppets...Hugo is good, but very little about it seems special to me.
I have been hedging my bets on "sexy Frankensteins" for years now. Give it time. Give it time....