The Twilight franchise is ending on a very high note. The fifth and final film, Breaking Dawn Part 2, grossed an estimated $141 million at the box office this weekend.
That’s actually not the best opening for a Twilight movie. New Moon still holds that record by a hair with a $143 million opening. But why quibble? The film has already brought in $341 million at the global box office bringing the franchise to almost $3 billion in box office grosses alone.
The final Twilight film will help push Lionsgate (once looked as a second tier studio) over the $1 billion mark for 2012. It doesn’t hurt that the studio also released the first Hunger Games movie this year. That film grossed $686 million at the global box office. The second Hunger Games film is slotted for this time next year and the third book will follow the pattern set by Harry Potter and Twilight and be broken into two movies.
Skyfall was another standout this weekend. The Sony film grossed an estimated $41.5 million at the box office bringing the James Bond film’s total global box office revenue to $670 million in just one week. That puts the film on track to be the biggest James Bond movie of all time and pushes Sony to $4 billion worldwide.
Overall the box office was up 49% this weekend over the same weekend last year, according to Exhibitor Relations. The next big blockbuster release: The Hobbit which hits theaters December 14th.
Here is the full chart for U.S. and Canada Box Office, Weekend of Nov. 16 -Nov. 18:
Via The New York Times| This Wk | Last Wk | Title | Distributor | Weekend Gross | Cumulative Gross | Wks Out | # of Theaters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 © 2010 Baseline, All rights reserved. |
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| 1 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part Two | Summit Entertainment, LLC | $141,300,000 | $141,300,000 | 1 | 4070 | |
| 2 | 1 | Skyfall | Sony Pictures Entertainment & Sony Pictures Releasing | $41,500,000 | $161,337,000 | 2 | 3505 |
| 3 | 15 | Lincoln | Touchstone Pictures & Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | $21,000,000 | $22,419,000 | 2 | 1775 |
| 4 | 2 | Wreck-It Ralph | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | $18,312,000 | $121,479,000 | 3 | 3622 |
| 5 | 3 | Flight | Paramount Pictures | $8,615,000 | $61,336,000 | 3 | 2612 |
| 6 | 4 | Argo | Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution | $4,070,000 | $92,022,000 | 6 | 2210 |
| 7 | 5 | Taken 2 | 20th Century Fox Distribution | $2,100,000 | $134,624,000 | 7 | 2063 |
| 8 | 8 | Pitch Perfect | Universal Pictures | $1,262,250 | $61,078,600 | 8 | 1122 |
| 9 | 9 | Here Comes the Boom | Sony Pictures Releasing | $1,200,000 | $41,019,000 | 6 | 1350 |
| 10 | 6 | Cloud Atlas | Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution | $900,000 | $24,894,000 | 4 | 920 |
| 11 | 10 | Hotel Transylvania | Sony Pictures Releasing | $900,000 | $142,700,000 | 8 | 1248 |
| 12 | 19 | The Sessions | Fox Searchlight Pictures | $900,000 | $2,803,430 | 5 | 516 |
| 13 | 7 | The Man With the Iron Fists | Universal Pictures | $700,700 | $14,663,700 | 3 | 910 |
| 14 | 14 | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | Lionsgate & Summit Entertainment, LLC | $635,000 | $15,622,100 | 9 | 511 |
| 15 | 12 | Sinister | Summit Entertainment, LLC | $465,000 | $47,460,200 | 6 | 789 |
| 16 | Silver Linings Playbook | The Weinstein Company | $458,430 | $458,430 | 1 | 16 | |
| 17 | 11 | Paranormal Activity 4 | Paramount Pictures | $380,000 | $53,501,000 | 5 | 850 |
| 18 | Anna Karenina | Focus Features | $315,395 | $315,395 | 1 | 16 | |
| 19 | 16 | Alex Cross | Summit Entertainment, LLC | $300,000 | $25,214,700 | 5 | 535 |
| 20 | 18 | Looper | TriStar Pictures & Columbia Pictures & FilmDistrict & Sony Pictures Releasing | $215,000 | $65,100,000 | 8 | 215 |
| 21 | 13 | Silent Hill: Revelation 3D | Open Road Films | $207,000 | $17,100,000 | 4 | 456 |
| 22 | 25 | A Late Quartet | Entertainment One Films & Entertainment One Group & RKO Pictures | $160,079 | $532,671 | 3 | 100 |
| 23 | 17 | Fun Size | Paramount Pictures & Nickelodeon Movies | $125,000 | $9,142,000 | 4 | 388 |
| 24 | 26 | ParaNorman | Focus Features | $112,356 | $55,629,900 | 14 | 180 |
| 25 | 28 | The Other Son | The Cohen Media Group | $84,709 | $670,174 | 4 | 45 |
| 26 | 32 | Searching for Sugar Man | Sony Pictures Classics | $65,419 | $2,680,250 | 17 | 54 |
| 27 | 31 | The Master | The Weinstein Company | $51,000 | $15,789,600 | 10 | 52 |
| 28 | 48 | Holy Motors | Indomina Group | $48,576 | $193,129 | 2 | 23 |
| 29 | 35 | The Expendables 2 | Lionsgate | $36,000 | $85,018,000 | 14 | 95 |
| 30 | 36 | The Possession | Lionsgate | $35,500 | $49,130,600 | 12 | 81 |
| 31 | 49 | This Must Be the Place | The Weinstein Company & Relativity Media Distribution Group | $23,860 | $83,514 | 2 | 15 |
| 32 | 73 | The Comedy | Tribeca Films | $13,150 | $21,194 | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | The Man in the White Suit | $3,600 | $3,600 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 34 | 71 | The Imposter | Indomina Group | $3,021 | $886,188 | 1 | 2 |