Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2′ Conquers All

As expected, the fifth and final film of the ‘Twilight’ series opened huge. In fact, ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2‘ had the second biggest opening of the franchise and when you consider how huge these things tend to open, that’s a big accomplishment. However, this was not just a victorious weekend for Twi-hards — just about every film in the top ten had something to cheer about.

With $141.3 million in its first weekend, ‘Breaking Dawn Part 2′ is just shy of ‘New Moon’s $142.8 million opening. Still, that’s nothing to scoff at — if you can’t top other films in your franchise, you can hopefully maintain consistency. The ‘Twilight’ franchise is nothing if not consistent thanks to its dedicated fanbase. ‘Twilight’ may often be the internet’s punching bag, but when it comes to making money year in and year out without ever seeming to lost fans, these sexy vampires and werewolves are doing something right. Although they’ve run out of books to adapt, expect them to find excuses to squeeze out more ‘Twilight’ movies for the foreseeable future.

A special note: Lionsgate’s acquisition of Summit means that this is the second film of their’s to open above $125 million this year (the other being ‘The Hunger Games’). That’s a record. Not bad for one of the newer kids on the block.

Moving on: is there a better piece of counter-programming for ‘Twilight’ than James Bond? ‘Skyfall‘ took a pretty large dip, but that’s expected when you open with $90 million. 007′s latest adventure made $41 million in its second week, which is roughly what ‘Casino Royale’ made in its first. With a two week total of $161 million, ‘Skyfall’ is only $7 million away from becoming the highest grossing Bond film of all time. That’s huge news for a series that’s been trucking for five decades.

In the third spot, Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln‘ moved out of limited release (hence the massive percentage increase from last week) and grossed $21 million, which is about as good as you can get for a lengthy historical epic that’s literally all talk and no action. With an estimated budget of $65 million, it should at least be able to break even if the word of mouth is strong (and with award season fast approaching, this is its best time to shine).

In fourth place, ‘Wreck-It Ralph‘ took in another $18 million, bringing its grand total to $121 million. It’s difficult to say how much ‘Rise of the Guardians’ will slow it down next week, but $150 million is a certainty at this point. $200 million is a possibility if and can coexist with the competition through Christmas, but it’s too early to know for sure.

In fifth place, ‘Flight‘ made $8 million and crawled over the $60 million mark. $100 million is out of the question, but $75-$80 million is still a possibility and history has shown that Denzel Washington films tend to have legs. Right under it, ‘Argo‘ grossed $4 million for a grand total of $92 million. With so much competition around the corner, it has another week or two before its gone, but it’ll do so after squeaking past the $100 million mark. In a year full of massive blockbusters, ‘Argo’s quiet success may be the most impressive box office showing of 2012.

As for the rest? Eh, not much new going on. ‘Taken 2,’ ‘Pitch Perfect,’ ‘Here Comes the Boom’ and ‘Cloud Atlas’ are just filling empty space at this point and will soon depart the top ten with varying degrees of success and non-success.

Next week, ‘Rise of the Guardians,’ ‘Life of Pi’ and ‘Red Dawn’ will all enter the fray. ‘Rise of the Guardians’ is a guaranteed opener, but the others are genuine wild cards. It’ll be an interesting weekend, for sure.

Source: Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2′ Conquers All