“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1” cast the longest shadow, with $16.9 million for a third-straight No. 1 finish during one of the year’s slowest weekends at the box office.
Business was dismal, with Hollywood.com estimating yesterday that domestic revenues would total just $82 million. That puts it barely ahead of Hollywood’s worst haul of the year, when revenues were $81.5 million over the second weekend in September.
The first weekend of December often presents a lull between big Thanksgiving releases and the onslaught of year-end blockbusters. But this big a slowdown is surprising given that there are quality titles among the top-10 films, particularly family fare such as “The Muppets,” ‘‘Hugo” and “Arthur Christmas.”
“It’s tough to blame it on the product when the product is pretty good and the films are solid,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “While the post-Thanksgiving weekend is typically slow, it’s not usually this slow.”