TICKET SALES PLUMMET POST THANKSGIVING

The weekend after Thanksgiving ordinarily amounts to the famine following the feast for the nation’s theater owners, but this year the takings were particularly lean. According to box-office trackers fewer tickets were sold last weekend than on any post-Thanksgiving weekend since 1997. Overall receipts came to $88 million. down 11.5 percent from the comparable weekend a year ago. Hardest hit were the two leaders, Disney’s Tangled, which dropped 56 percent from last weekend, and Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, which plummeted 65 percent. Only one film opened wide over the weekend, The Warrior’s Way. Receiving little promotion or marketing push, the film was essentially allowed to escape, earning less money in its first weekend than any other wide-release film this year.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Tangled, Disney, $21,608,891, 2 Wks. ($96,570,812); 2. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part I, Warner Bros., $17,018,475, 3 Wks. ($244,519,116); 3. Burlesque, Sony, $6,130,061, 2 Wks. ($26,986,656); 4. Unstoppable, 20th Century Fox, $5,970,194, 4 Wks. ($68,762,864); 5. Love and Other Drugs, 20th Century Fox, $5,652,810, 2 Wks. ($22,574,887); 6. Megamind, Paramount/DreamWorks Animation, $4,936,851, 5 Wks. ($136,611,161); 7. Due Date, Warner Bros., $4,133,286, 5 Wks. ($90,882,138); 8. Faster, CBS Films, $3,934,600, 2 Wks. ($18,217,730); 9. The Warrior’s Way, Relativity Media, $3,048,665, (New); 10. The Next Three Days, Lionsgate, $2,570,908, 3 Wks. ($18,301,917).