'Twilight' bests holiday beginners

'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Beginning -- Part 1'Despite the Thanksgiving glut of B.O. champion "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Beginning - Part 1" along with a trio of kidpics, brought by Disney's "The Muppets," overall domestic box office still was lower roughly 10% versus. last year's extended holiday play period.In 5 days, "Breaking Beginning" collected $62.3 million for any cume of $221.3 million, while "The Muppets" settled for second place, having a debut of $42 million through Sunday.Neither pic could match last year's top game titles: "Harry Potter and also the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" made almost $75 million in 5 days "Twisted" bowed with $68.7 million.The 2010 other debut VIP's, including new records "Arthur Christmas" and "Hugo," handled to keep their very own, though large budgets might make that it is hard for either film being lucrative. "Arthur Christmas," which cost you a reported $98 million, arrived in the high-finish of anticipation, by having an believed $17 million. "Hugo," meanwhile, was created by GK Films for north of $150 million and obtained a five-day take of $15.4 million (substantially much better than pre-weekend forecasts within the low-double numbers)."Hugo," distribbed Stateside by Vital, were built with a relatively reserved rollout at 1,277 locations, which 75% from the weekend gross originated from roughly 1,000 three dimensional locations. In comparison, "Arthur Christmas," which released at 3,376 locations, gained 53% of their total from 2,378 three dimensional playdates.Componen vice chairman Take advantage of Moore said on "Hugo's" release strategy, calling it "a great rollout for any movie that are more expensive than $100 million." He added that "this movie has certain assets that warrant another type of release pattern," namely, reviews that are positive and reactions from kudos groups.Componen intends to expand "Hugo" to a lot more than 2,000 locations by 12 ,. 9.Overseas grosses can help both "Hugo" and "Arthur Christmas." The first kind pic launches next weekend within the U.K., where "Arthur Christmas" already continues to be carrying out extremely well for 3 days, having a local cume of $12.7 million. As a whole, "Arthur Christmas" has cumed $22.3 million from 24 marketplaces outdoors the U.S.Warner Bros.' second-week Stateside holdover "Happy Ft Two" could beat both "Arthur Christmas" and "Hugo," landing within the No. 3 place by having an believed $18.4 million in 5 days. Pic's Stateside cume now stands at $43.8 million.Despite the fact that overall totals lagged, no-one can blame the small men.Fox Searchlight saw an outstanding expansion for "The Descendants," which cracked the very best ten because of its second straight week - this time around, grossing a five-day $9.two million from just 433 locations.Also carrying out well was the Weinstein Co.'s niche set of "My Week With Marilyn" and "The Artist," the second which bowed at four locations for that weekend's greatest per-screen average in 72 hours at $52,604. "My Week With Marilyn," which bowed Wednesday at 123 engagements, obtained within the lengthy weekend an overall total $2.a million, using the weekend's best Friday-Saturday bump of 31%. (Pic broadened to 244 playdates on Friday.)The new sony Pictures Classics' new entry "A Harmful Method" first showed Wednesday at four locations, calculating an outstanding $60,236 per screen for 5 days. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com