Holiday Weekend Box Office: November 21-25

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Twilight Saga:  Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $64 million

2.  Skyfall - $51.1 million

3.  Lincoln - $34 million

4.  Rise of the Guardians - $32.6 million

5.  Life of Pi - $30.1 million

6.  Wreck-It Ralph - $23 million

7.  Red Dawn - $22 million

8.  Flight - $11.3 million

9.  Silver Linings Playbook - $5.9 million

10.  Argo - $5.1 million

This Thanksgiving holiday weekend looks a whole lot like this same weekend last year, with the latest Twilight movie easily taking the top spot.  Indeed, Breaking Dawn Part 2 earned an estimated $64 million over the 5-day weekend, bringing its total haul to $226 million domestically (plus another $350 million overseas).  That puts it ahead of where Breaking Dawn Part 1 was at this same time last year, making it another smash entry in the Twilight series.

A bunch of new releases were no match for James Bond this weekend as either, as the excellent Skyfall crossed the $200 million mark this weekend, earning an estimated $51.1 million over the long weekend.  Skyfall is now officially the highest-grossing Bond film of the series domestically at $221 million and counting, while overseas the film has grossed a staggering $568 million.

Lincoln continued to impress at the box office, earning an additional $34 million over the holiday, bringing its domestic total to $62 million.  It should continue to do strong business as Oscar season revs up over the next month.  Joining the Oscar hopeful mix this weekend was Life of Pi, which opened strongly with $30.1 million, and Silver Linings Playbook, which went into wider release and earned $5.9 million at just 367 theaters. 

The new animated film Rise of the Guardians didn't fare so well, earning just $32.6 million over the holiday weekend.  Business picked up somewhat on Friday, but then dropped steadily as the weekend continued.  The film did receive an "A" Cinemascore from audiences, but its darker tone may keep it from turning into another How To Train Your Dragon, which started off slow and picked up momentum propelled by good word-of-mouth back when that opened in 2010. 

Wreck-It Ralph continued to do well, its $23 million over the holiday managed to beat up the long-delayed remake of Red Dawn, which went mostly unnoticed with only $22 million over five days.

Another Oscar hopefully joins the mix next weekend, as Killing Them Softly opens in theaters.  Not much else joining it, besides horror sequel The Collection.  Looks like we may see a Twilight/Skyfall threepeat next weekend.