The couple of weeks after Thanksgiving always tend to be dominated by holdovers at the US box office, but this year it’s been particularly light on new entries, seemingly because everyone is running scared of The Hobbit, which is expected to completely take over cinemas this coming weekend.
This has allowed Skyfall to rise back to the top of the US box office on its fifth weekend, taking $11.4 million over the three days. It’s not a huge amount to make it to the top of the chart, and indeed overall it’s been the third worst weekend at the boox office this year. However it’s good news for Skyfall, as no movie has toped the box office on its fifth weekend since 2010.
The only major new release tanked, with the Gerard Butler soccer themed rom-com Playing For Keeps taking just $6 million on its first three days.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of December 7th-9th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Skyfall | $11.4 | $261.6 |
| 2 | Rise Of The Guardians | $10.5 | $61.9 |
| 3 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 | $9.2 | $268.7 |
| 4 | Lincoln | $9.1 | $97.3 |
| 5 | Life Of Pi | $8.3 | $60.8 |
| 6 | Playing For Keeps | $6.0 | $6.0 |
| 7 | Wreck-It Ralph | $4.9 | $164.4 |
| 8 | Red Dawn | $4.2 | $37.2 |
| 9 | Flight | $3.1 | $86.2 |
| 10 | Killing Them Softly | $2.7 | $11.7 |
The post Thanksgiving box office is traditionally dominated by holdovers and that’s certainly true this year, with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 topping the US chart again, taking another $17 million to hit $255 million in America so far. It also hit a franchise record internationally over the weekend, taking $447 million outside the US, ahead of Breaking Dawn Part 1’s total of $430.9 million.
Throughout last week, the predictions of how well Skyfall would do on its US opening kept growing. It went from a possible $50 million debut, until the day before its opening many were thinking $60 million, perhaps even $70 million. By Friday the predictions had reached $80 million, but in the end even that was too conservative, as by Sunday it had hit $90 million.
Wreck-It Ralph certainly got a good start this weekend, with the highest opening ever for a non-Pixar Disney animated movie. The film took $49.1 million, just ahead of Tangled’s $48.8 million debut. It’s a great start, helped by the fact it appealed to both boys and girls, and with little to challenge it in the family demographic over the next few weeks, it should have strong legs.
