Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Walters, Imelda Staunton, Miranda Richardson, and many other well-known British actors, David Yates‘ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 topped the North American box office this past weekend (Nov. 26-28), pulling in $49.08m — over $1m less than Sunday estimates — according to weekend actuals found at Box Office Mojo.
At no. 2 was Disney’s animated 3D feature Tangled, which brought in $48.76m. At least partly thanks to 3D surcharges and 2010’s higher ticket prices, Tangled had the second biggest Thanksgiving opening ever.
At a distant no. 3, DreamWorks’ animated 3D feature Megamind, with the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Brad Pitt, drew $12.57m.
At no. 4, the Cher-Christina Aguilera musical Burlesque scored $11.94m, followed by Tony Scott’s Unstoppable, starring Star Trek’s Chris Pine and Denzel Washington, with $11.43m at no. 5.
The no. 6 movie was Edward Zwick’s romantic comedy-drama Love and Other Drugs, starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal, which grossed $9.73m.
Next in line were Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton’s Faster with $8.52m at no. 7 and Todd Phillips‘ comedy Due Date, starring Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifianakis, with $7.16m at no. 8.
Rounding out the top twelve were Paul Haggis-Russell Crowe’s The Next Three Days with $4.68m, Harrison Ford-Diane Keaton-Rachel McAdams‘ Morning Glory with $3.91m, Danny Boyle-James Franco’s 127 Hours with $1.7m, Naomi Watts-Sean Penn’s Fair Game with $1.56m.
Among the top-twelve movies, Tangled – thanks to 3D surcharges — had the highest per-theater average, $13,535. Morning Glory had the lowest, $1,602.
At only 4 theaters, The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, took in $355k, thus scoring the year’s highest per-theater average: $88,863.
Also among the top twelve (barring mid-week entries Burlesque, Love and Other Drugs, Tangled, and Faster; and the expanded 127 Hours), Fair Game was the only movie to go up compared to last weekend, +7.2%, following the addition of 10 theaters.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 posted the highest drop-off rate from last weekend, -60.7% (or about -51% if Thursday midnight screenings are removed from last weekend’s total).
Photo: The Weinstein Co.