Warner Bros. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 remained on top of the charts for the second weekend in a row during the busy Thanksgiving weekend. Four new films opened to challenge the boy wizard, with Disney’s Tangled coming within a hair of doing so. The trio of other new films; Sony Screen Gems Burlesque, Love & Other Drugs from 20^th Century Fox andFaster from CBS Films turned out to be box office turkeys, each underperforming.  This weekend, only one new film, The Warrior’s Wayfrom Rogue Pictures, opens in wide release which will give these films a chance at redemption. 

Happy Thanksgiving! This weekend 4 new releases make their way into theatres; Disney’s modern take on Rapunzel, Tangled, is sure to be a hit while the other three releases may prove to be box office turkeys. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is looking for revenge in action flick Faster from CBS Films, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway feel the rush of romance in Love & Other Drugs from 20^th Century Fox  and Christina Aguilera makes her big screen debut in musical Burlesque from Screen Gems. Will any of these films have what it takes to dethrone Harry Potter? Take a look.                

Warner Bros. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 got off to a fantastic start this weekend, breaking a couple of box office records along the way. The boy wizard set a new opening weekend record for the series and also racked up one of the biggest debuts in box office history. The only other film to be released this weekend, Lionsgate’s The Next Three Days starring Russell Crowe and Elisabeth Banks opened poorly in fifth place, proving that it was unwise to compete with Mr. Potter and friends. 

This weekend one of the most anticipated movies of the year, Warner Bros. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, arrives ready to whip up a little magic at the box office. Just to give an idea of how well this latest chapter in the venerable franchise will perform, last weekend’s top 10 grossed about $110M collectively, a number the boy wizard will easily eclipse on his own. The real question is whether Potter can top last year at this time when The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Summit Entertainment) powered the top 10 to an astounding total of $246.8M. The only other studio brave enough to open a film against J.K. Rowling’s epic, is Lionsgate, which releases The Next Three Days starring Russell Crowe and Elisabeth Banks. 

Despite competition from three new releases, Dreamworks Animations Megamind stayed at the top of the box office heap for the second week in a row. Denzel Washington’s latest, Unstoppable from 20^th Century Fox, had a solid opening in second place and should keep rolling along into the holidays. Universal’s Skyline crashed and burned in fourth place, grossing way less than most industry expectations (including my own). Finally, Paramount’s romantic workplace comedy, Morning Glory, opened quietly in fifth place. All in all, the top 10 films grossed an estimated $110.5M collectively, down 11% from this time last year when Sony Pictures’ 2012 opened with $65.2M.

After a fantastic start to the holiday season in Hollywood, three new films open this weekend to compete for your box office dollars. Universal Pictures unleashes its low budget, alien invasion pic, Skyline. Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott team up for their fifth collaboration in train going off the rails action flick, Unstoppable from 20^th Century Fox. The final new release for the weekend is comedy Morning Glory from Paramount starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton.  Will any of these films have what it takes to knock Dreamworks Animation’s Megamind out of the top spot? Take a look. 

The holiday season in Hollywood started off really well with Megamindfrom Dreamworks Animation becoming their third 3D animated feature to open at #1 this year behind May’s fourth Shrek film and March’s How to Train Your Dragon.  Two other new releases performed very well; director Todd Philipp’s Due Date from Warner Bros.  arrived with a strong second place opening and Lionsgate reteamed with filmmaker Tyler Perry with For Colored Girls and once again Perry’s fanbase showed up in force. The top 10 films collected an estimated $142.4M dwarfing last year’s total of $103M for the frame. Overall, the weekend box office for the top 10 films was up an astounding 38.3% from this time last year.

This weekend marks the start of the holiday season in Hollywood as three new films, each ripe with potential, open in multiplexes nationwide. Dreamworks Animation launches its third animated feature of the year, Megamind, starring the voice talents of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt and Tina Fey. Warner Bros. hopes to earn a few laughs with Due Date starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis and Tyler Perry is back with a huge cast with his latest, For Colored Girls, from Lionsgate. Who will win the weekend? Take a look. 

Saw 3D won the battle of the fright flicks over the Halloween weekend, handily beating Paranormal Activity 2 for the box office crown.   Overall, the top 10 films for the weekend grossed an estimated total of $83.8M, up 7.5% from last year at this time, when the overall top 10 grossed $77.5M. Take a look.

Saw 3D is off to a decent start, collecting an estimated $11M on Friday, its first day of release, including $1.7M from Thursday midnight showings.