Box Office, Friday Box Office | featured news

Hollywood is on course for record Thanksgiving grosses; among holdovers, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2" and "Skyfall" jump the $200 million mark domestically... Ang Lee's Life of Pi, conversely, is easily outpacing tracking and should finish the five-day stretch with a $30 million debut for 20th Century Fox.

But the final film in the blockbuster vampire series is overperforming overseas, where it's already earned $38.8 million; elsewhere, Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" is generating strong interest as it expands nationwide. read more

After already banking $321M overseas in a couple of weeks, “Skyfall” has finally landed in U.S. yesterday, taking in a massive $30.8M, an opening day record for the fifty year franchise according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. With Thursday’s revenue from midnight and IMAX screenings, its total is $33M so far. For the weekend, it’s projected to pull in $80M-$90M, also a new opening record for the franchise.

Moviegoing surges in the Northeast as people look for a distraction from Superstorm Sandy; most movie theaters now reopened. Disney Animation Studios' Wreck-It Ralph rushed to the top of the box office chart on Friday with an opening day gross of $13.4 million.

Kevin James comedy "Here Comes the Boom" is soft; "Atlas Shrugged: Part 2" hasn't yet galvanized conservative moviegoers. Summit Entertainment's microbudgeted horror pic Sinister stole the show at the Friday box office, grossing $7.5 million and beating holdover Taken 2 and Ben Affleck's new political thriller Argo.

Liam Neeson and ‘Taken 2” are looking at a $48 million weekend after blasting past their box office rivals Friday and rolling to a first-day total of $18.6 million. The gangbusters debut for Fox’s PG13-rated action sequel marks the second consecutive week a movie has broken out and lifted the box office into positive territory. If the weekend stays on pace, it will finish more than 30 percent ahead of last year, when “Real Steel” lead the way with a $27 million debut.

"Looper" and musical comedy "Pitch Perfect" also score strong starts; education drama "Won't Back Down" flunks... According to early estimates, Hotel Transylvania -- boasting a voice cast led by Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Selena Gomez -- grossed an estimated $11 million on Friday for a $38 million to $40 million weekend. The 3D toon earned an A- CinemaScore overall, and an A from females and kids under the age of 18.

...That seems to be the case with “The Possession,” yet another film about an evil spirit that tries to possess its host. And it’s based on a true story. You know, like how “The Return of the Living Dead” is based on real events. Yeah, sure. With a 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics aren’t buying it. That is, unless you’re Roger Ebert, who gave it 3.5 stars.

Action extravaganza The Expendables easily topped the Friday box office, but overall moviegoing remained on the softer side as the sequel found itself trailing the original 2010 film. Expendables 2, from Lionsgate and Millennium Films, grossed $10.5 million for a projected weekend opening in the $27 million to $28 million range. On the same weekend two years ago, Expendables grossed $13.3 million on its first Friday for a $34.8 million opening.

Universal lowers its weekend projection for "The Bourne Legacy" after latenight traffic comes to a standstill, a common phenomenon since the July 20 Aurora theater shooting. Universal's The Bourne Legacy is safely in the No. 1 position at the domestic box office, opening to $14 million on Friday for a weekend debut in the $41 million range. Bourne Legacy is a key test for the studio as it tries to reboot one of its marquee franchises without Matt Damon. This go around, Jeremy Renner is the leading man.