Box Office: The ‘Twilight’ Triple Threat Has Occurred

And you all slept through it, didn’t you? It’s okay. I mean, it’s not THAT big of a surprise, really. We knew the latest Twilight outing would be strong competition for anyone, even those lovable Muppets.What surprised me was how much The Muppets dropped here in only its second weekend out. While other family fare were coming in with drops under 40%, The Muppets ended up being the biggest drop of all the top 10 films and only pulled another $11m domestically. Evidently most parents wanting to relive their childhood and bring their kids along with them already hit the film up last weekend while stuffed with Thanksgiving dinner. Not many of them came back for a second helping.

At this rate, The Muppets will be a moderate success. Its chances of topping $100m are pretty slim, but its reportedly cost $45m. In addition to that its DVD/Blu-Ray sales are sure to be high with the buckets of adoration its had spilled on it. Every big kid who fell in love with the Muppets are going to want this one sitting on their shelves next to Great Muppet Caper and Muppets Take Manhattan. And, yes, Muppets From Space for some of us. Don’t judge me. I love Pepe the Prawn.

But back to the vampires babies. Breaking Dawn Part 1 continues to run slightly behind New Moon in terms of long-term success. This latest film’s chances of topping Eclipse’s $300m domestic run are growing slimmer by the week. Have no concern for the franchise, though, as it also continues to pull in dollars overseas. Its worldwide take so far is at $587.9m. By comparison, Eclipse topped out worldwide with $698.4m. New Moon ended with $709.8m. Breaking Dawn Part 1 has a ways to go, but those foreign dollars could end up in its favor.

Also at the box office, some limited releases saw very impressive numbers in the per theater average category. Shame, The Artist, and A Dangerous Method, all films on 10 or less screens, boasted around a $30,000-35,000 per screen average. The Artist and Shame, two big Oscar hopefuls, are likely to expand quickly in the coming weeks guaranteeing some big numbers. A Dangerous Method isn’t getting the Oscar push, so its run will continue to stay limited. However, those limited numbers could end up accumulating quickly. Just look at Midnight in Paris, which topped out at $55.9m domestic.

Here’s how the weekend broke down:

1. Breaking Dawn Part 1 – $16.5m (-60.3%) $246.9m total
2. The Muppets – $11m (-62.1%) $56.3m total
3. Hugo – $7.5m (-33.5%) $25.1m total
4. Arthur Christmas – $7.4m (-38.7%) $25.3m total
5. Happy Feet Two – $5.9m (-55.8%) $51.7m total
6. Jack and Jill – $5.3m (-46.4%) $64.1m total
7. The Descendants – $4.7m (-34.8%) $17.5m total
8. Immortals – $4.4m (-49.7%) $75.6m total
9. Tower Heist – $3.9m (-44.9%) $70.5m total
10. Puss in Boots – $3m (-59.5%) $139.5m total

That comes to $69.6m for the top 10, way down from last weekend and even further down than I anticipated. That Muppets drop really hurt the total number. So, too, did the almost 60% drop for Puss in Boots, which dropped out of 255 screens.Not even Breaking Dawn can four-peat it. The competition next weekend isn’t anything to cheer about. New Year’s Eve and The Sitter both have their definite demographics, but neither will pulling major dollars. One of those is sure to top the weekend, especially if Breaking Dawn has another 50+% drop, but it’s not going to be much of an upswing from this weekend.

We’ll be back on Sunday to go over the weekend numbers.