‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’ Rules Thanksgiving Weekend

The latest installment in the “Harry Potter” franchise has managed to come atop the Thanksgiving weekend despite the fact that several new releases vied for the same position.

As early estimates had it, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” is definitely en route to becoming the biggest grosser in the franchise. Over the holiday, it made over $50 million in the US alone.

As The Hollywood Reporter points out, though this represented a 60% decline in sales, it was still enough to keep “Harry Potter” ahead of newcomers, namely Disney’s “Tangled,” “Faster” with Dwayne Johnson and “Burlesque” with Christina Aguilera.

In just 10 days of domestic release, the cume for “Harry Potter” amounts to a remarkable $220.4 million, says the aforementioned publication.

“Tangled, a 3D animated adventure based on the Rapunzel fable, was easily the top grosser among the new pictures with a surprisingly strong $49.1 million in second place and a $69 million cume since unspooling Wednesday in the biggest Disney-branded animated debut in years,” THR notes.

Not only did “Tangled” make a killing at the box office, albeit not get the top spot, but it also enjoyed excellent reviews, with critics saying it’s the best Disney animation to come out in many years.

A sharp gap can be noticed between these two films and the rest of the pics that made the top 10 at the North American box office.

“Sony Screen Gem’s song- and dance-filled Burlesque kicked up $11.8 million in fourth place during the weekend for a $17.2 million cume since its midweek bow,” THR says.

Even so, this is more than enough to prevent anyone from cataloging the film a complete flop, which critics predicted it would be in their pre-release reviews, as we also informed you at the time.

“Fox’s romantic comedy Love and Other Drugs copped $9.9 million in sixth place for the three days and a five-day cume of $14 million,” THR says.

This release too got mixed reviews ahead of release, with many saying the poorly written script ruined the excellent performances of the leading stars, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.

“CBS Films’ Dwayne Johnson actioner Faster fetched $8.6 million in seventh place for a $12.2 million cume,” the same report notes.