Image Credit: Jaap BuitendijkIn a surprisingly close race, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 held on to its box-office crown Friday by grossing $20.8 million, according to early estimates. That’s a 66 percent drop from the fantasy film’s opening last Friday, which was inflated due to an enormous turnout at Thursday midnight screenings. If Deathly Hallows follows the Thanksgiving trajectory of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — the last Potter film to open in November — the PG-13 movie should finish the weekend with about $50 million. That would bring Deathly Hallows‘ 10-day tally to $220 million, making it the 10th greatest 10-day gross in box-office history and the best ever for a Potter flick.
But Friday wasn’t only a celebration for wizards, as Disney’s animated musical Tangled came in close behind with $19.7 million. The PG movie, which debuted Wednesday, has grossed $39.7 million so far, and has a shot at overtaking Deathly Hallows for the three-day weekend. If that happens, it’d be due to one reason: incredible word-of-mouth. CinemaScore audiences rated the fairy-tale film an “A+” — the first movie this year to garner the rare grade. Even more impressive is the fact that while moviegoers under the age of 25 rated Tangled an “A,” those over the age of 25 gave it an “A+.” Clearly this retelling of Rapunzel is delivering for all age groups, and when that happens, watch out. Tangled is on pace to finish second this weekend with about $47 million, but again, it could very well upset Potter for first place. Seems the lesson here is: Never underestimate a woman with ridiculously long hair.
The next five films are fairly clumped together, and their positions could swap by Sunday night. DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind came in third on Friday, grossing $5.3 million for an actual increase of 41 percent from last week. In fourth place was the action thriller Unstoppable, which gained 13 percent from last week for $4.6 million. After that were this week’s three other new releases. The Cher-Christina Aguilera musical Burlesque fared best, bringing in $4.5 million on Friday. Despite mediocre reviews, audiences liked the PG-13 film — CinemaScore moviegoers graded it an “A-.”. The R-rated romantic comedy Love and Other Drugs, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, was next in sixth place with $3.8 million. And Faster, Dwayne Johnson’s return to the action genre, rounded out the top seven with $3.2 million. Check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 — $20.8 mil
2. Tangled — $19.7 mil
3. Megamind — $5.3 mil
4. Unstoppable — $4.6 mil
5. Burlesque — $4.5 mil
6. Love and Other Drugs — $3.8 mil
7. Faster — $3.2 mil
Box office preview: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to lead Thanksgiving weekend
m1 can’t wait to dress like a princess and watch tangled
You can borrow my heels. I went in with VERY low expectations, but it was SURPRISINGLY very good. All the news concerning the marketing and development problems are hard to believe. Props to Disney for pulling it off.
Tangled is amazing. I teared up in a couple scenes because of how beautiful the animation was. The marketing was so off base for this one.
Pixar films are cinematic gold and modern day classics!! Dreamworks flicks, Ice Age sequels, The Incredibles knock-offs and Happy Feet as owls are pure pop trash!!!
Would you please stop saying that for every single animated film that comes out, regardless of its quality? While Pixar movies are all great, your constantly cut-and-paste argument gets worse every time.
Looks like Unstoppable has turned into the box office equiavalent of the little engine that could.
Yew haw! NASCAR audience likes dumb loud movies!
I believe that’s “yee haw”, genius.
I believe the comma goes inside the quotation marks, genius.
No, chaburchak’s right. The punctuation goes outside the quotation marks because it isn’t part of the phrase being quoted.
Happy to see both HP7 and Tangled doing well. I saw both over the holiday and loved them. Also happy to see HP7 gaining on the craptastic New Moon.
I agree 100% Hannah. I brought my 12 year old to HP7.1 last weekend,and my 3 year old to Tangled on friday. Both were great, both kids loved the movie they saw, and both movies are totally worth seeing
All this buzz surrounding “Tangled” really makes me want to see it. I thought the commercials made it look like an average animated comedy, but I might have to check it out considering the surprising box office success and the amazing reviews.
Tangled was a fantastic movie. I’m a huge Disney fan and thought Tangled would be decent but not great–I didn’t have very high expectations, but when I went in to see it, I was surprised to see how character-oriented it was (as opposed to early classics like Snow White where the characters were all flat, though nice.) Glad to see it’s doing as well as it deserves!
Feh. The characters in Snow White are not “flat”, unless you’re talking about the prince, who’s just a plot device. The Dwarfs beat anything in Tangled, although Tangled IS the best Disney animated film in quite some time. I’m glad it’s doing well, but let’s go easy on the hyperbole there.
I enjoyed it. It was very Disney. I loved Maximus (so did my 2 year-old nephew)
The marketing people for Tangled should be fired. The commercials make it look like a sad clone of a Dreamworks movie, when it really is an excellent Disney film (and a pretty funny one, too).
Really? How is “Tangled” the first film this year to get a cinemascore of A+? Not Toy Story 3? Inception? The Social Network? How to Train Your Dragon? I’m sure Tangled is a solid movie, but it honestly doesn’t look like anything special. I thoroughly believe cinemascore is very flawed.
All those films you mentioned got an A from cinemascore. Nothing to sneeze at, of course. But yeah, the A+ has only been garnered by Tangled.
yea i completely agree it is flawed. tangled was a decent movie but no where near as good as inception or toy story 3.
Cinemascore is flawed. I thought “Inception” and “Toy Story 3″ were B movies at best.
Tangled was so much better for me than TS3. maybe becuase I’m a sucker for fairy tales, but I don’t get the whole obsession with Toy Story..it was good and all, but kinda meh.
frankly, toy story 3 is overrated. I enjoyed it very much, as did all the kids, but its not even the best animated movie I have seen this year. I enjoyed tangled more, and how to train your dragon.
That’s fine, personal opinion; however, the general consensus seemed to be that most people preferred Toy Story and HTTYD to Tangled.
Toy Story 3 was DEPRESSING. Angst angst angst from beginning to end! I’d take How To Train Your Dragon to Toy Story 3 any day.
@Liger: I find that an insult to Toy Story 3. “Angst, angst, angst” is what we use to describe pretentious POS’s like The Last Song, not an exceptional animated film.
It seems a tad early to judge what the consensus on Tangled will be. I also thought HTTYD was superior to TS3.
Wow. I really loved all three movies. Toy story 3 does leave me a little wrung out, but that doesn’t make it any less of a movie. Won’t pick a favorite- just thankful there have been so many great things to take my kids to this year.
Agreed. Every one of the movies you mentioned was better than Tangled (which I did like a lot).
Go Tangled Go! So much better than the boredom that is Deathly Hallows pt.1.
I really wanted to see ‘Tangled’, but I can’t find it playing anywhere in the Boston area where it’s not in 3D (really don’t want to see it in 3D). I did go to see ‘Deathly Hallows’ again, though, and it was well worth it. Even better on repeat viewing
YAY!!!! Tangled only got beat out by about $1 Million!! Go Disney, Go Tangled, and Take that scar on forehead kid!!
Considering this Harry Potter’s second week, and it still came on top…I think HP is the real victory in this race…
Tangled doesn’t have all the fanboys and fangirls who go see it 500 times in a row.
Lol no they just have all the Disney fanatics who will see anything the company puts out 500 times in a row.
They exist, Joe? Pixar, I can see, but not Disney in general.
There are not Disney people like HP insane fans that have to watch the movie 10 times before it leaves the theater. Pixar, maybe, but that is completely different.
The difference between Potter and Pixar is that Pixar’s movies are good every time, not even close to that with Potter.
Actually, HP has maintained a pretty high standard, for being seven films (soon to be eight) deep. Most film series peter out around the third go (Spider-Man 3), overplay their hand (Shrek) or suck from the get-go. Regardless of your personal opinion, it’s generally accepted that HP films are technically very good, and far better than the legion of copycats that has ensued.
Tangled is putting up quite the competition. I hope Harry ends up on top, being a HP fanatic, it was one of the best films of the series, everything about it worked and made it an enjoyable and emotionally heart renching film–maybe my favorite of the year (along with Social Network and TS3). I hope it comes out on top this weekend and next weekend. Saw Tangled today with a sold out crowd. It was good, albeit extremely overrated–it didn’t come close to TS3 or How to train your dragon, but it was a good movie. Each can pull 50 million this weekend, both deserve it. I hope Harry after this weekend can level out somewhat.
Long hair + nutty horse + Chuck = box office gold!
People are going to Harry Potter because they feel like they have to since they’ve seen the rest. People are going to Tangled because it’s actually good, that’s the difference here.
Or…. people are going to Harry Potter because it is a quality film. Sure it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but overall people enjoy the movie.
HP7 also got top marks from CinemaScore, so clearly audiences like it.
Harry Potter was surprisingly good. I have seen all the other movies, though not all in theaters, and I did not enjoy them (except for POA) and read the books multiple times, but I have to say Deathly Hallows surpassed my expectations. It was very well made.
There hasn’t been a truly great Harry Potter movie since Azkaban, the last 4 (including Hallows) have all just kinda blended together for me, nothing memorable whatsoever.
Tangled > HP7, but HP7 is a quality film. IMO, the last good HP film was HP3, so HP7 exceeded my expectations and I’m very happy with the results.
I am sorry but seven movies of the same WE’RE IN DANGER, FRIENDSHIP AND LOYALTY ARE IMPORTANT, WE SAVED THE DAY ONCE MORE, tends to get boring.. I tried hard to like these movies but after this last one, I am done.. still, I would RATHER sit through these movies then CRAPLIGHT
It’s been pretty boring since part 3, Prisoner of Azkaban was the last one I even remotely enjoyed.
And yet you keep seeing them?
Hopefully “Burlesque” gets a nudge to a higher position. At least 3…or 4 even.
Thus vindicating Disney’s boy-centric marketing campaign.
Harry Potter 7 Part 1 was good but I wouldn’t put it with the best of the HP films (which are the 3rd, 5th, and 6th in my opinion). I’m glad to see it’s doing well, though. But I don’t recommend taking young children to see it.
Your joking right, 6 was the worst since 2.the new one was far and away the best. This started out as a kiddy cuddly franchise and elevated so something so much greater. I guess you are one for the adventures in candyland.
I don’t understand people’s love for 6. That movie was horrible.
Gee, I didn’t know that people with faces on the backs of their heads or enormous green snake-like monsters can be elements of what was originally a ‘kiddy cuddly franchise’.
agree. The 6th was sooo boring. Definately one of the worst. People were telling me it was good, so I was so excited to see it…. and it was crap.
5 and 6 were the worst ones. Long, boring and nothing but setups for what was to come. And unfortunately, what is to come doesn’t interest me anymore
Really? Because I thought the 1st and 2nd were close to the bottom, with the 4th being extremely overrated. The 5th definitely felt like a set-up, but for some reason I really liked it. I thought the 6th really showed how much the characters had developed, and I found it a great adaptation of my favorite Harry Potter book.
Personally, I thought the 6th book was the worst, therefore making the movie the worst. It was a huge placeholder, with teen love drama and stuff about voldemort’s past. Important exposition, but not much action.
i found #5 definetly the worst. they left out a ton from the book and it seemed like the whole movie was set in blue tones…there was like no color.