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Los Angeles - A fairy-tale princess gave young wizard Harry Potter a run for his money at the weekend box office.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 remained the No 1 movie with $50.3m over the Thanksgiving weekend, closely followed by the animated musical Tangled with $49.1m, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
The next-to-last Harry Potter movie raised its domestic total to $220.4m after just 10 days in theatres, according to distributor Warner Bros.
Tangled is the latest Disney cartoon musical, with Mandy Moore providing the voice of fairy-tale princess Rapunzel. The movie raised its five-day total to $69m since opening the day before Thanksgiving.
While Deathly Hallows continued to work box-office magic, Disney's Tangled far exceeded industry expectations, delivering the second-biggest Thanksgiving début ever behind Toy Story 2, which had a $57.4m opening.
Disney head of distribution Chuck Viane said the studio would have been happy if Tangled had matched the $34m, début of its hit Enchanted over Thanksgiving 2007. Tangled not only shot past that mark but also challenged Harry Potter for the No 1 spot.
"That was the last thing we were thinking of, but it sure is nice to be even thought of in that situation," Viane said. " is such a huge hit. To be that close, it was amazing."
Other new releases
Three other new wide releases had so-so openings, led by Christina Aguilera and Cher's song-and-dance tale Burlesque at No 4 with $11.8m for the weekend and a five-day total of $17.2m since premièring on Wednesday.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway's romance Love & Other Drugs debuted at No 6 with a three-day haul of $9.9m and a total of $14m since opening on Wednesday.
Dwayne Johnson's action tale Faster opened at No 7 with $8.7m for the weekend and $12.2m since its Wednesday début.
With a $125m opening weekend, Deathly Hallows had the biggest start yet for the franchise about the young wizard. Its 10-day total also surpasses the previous high of $201m set by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and last year's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, according to Warner Bros.
"That kind of tells you how big the last `Potter' is going to be," said Jeff Goldstein, general sales manager for Warner Bros. "If you look at films like Lord of the Rings, when you get to the last one, anticipation is just overwhelming."
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the final instalment, hits theatres next July.
Despite big business for Harry Potter and Tangled, Hollywood fell short of the Thanksgiving revenue record set last year, when The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Blind Side led the box office.
No growth
According to box-office tracker Hollywood.com, revenues from Wednesday to Sunday last Thanksgiving totalled $273m, compared to $267m this season.
"This one was really close. I thought we might eke out a record," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.
Other than Tangled, the new wide releases did not draw huge crowds, each catering to a segment of the audience.
Sony's Burlesque, with Aguilera as a waitress seeking stardom at a Hollywood musical club, drew women; 20th Century Fox's Love and Other Drugs, with Gyllenhaal as a pharmaceutical salesman who falls for an ailing woman (Hathaway), brought in date crowds; and CBS Films' Faster, starring Johnson as an ex-con out for revenge, attracted male action fans.
In limited release, the Weinstein drama The King's Speech got off to a majestic start with $349 791 in four theatres in New York City and Los Angeles. That gave it a whopping average of $87 448 a theatre, compared to $13 628 in 3 603 theatres for Tangled.
The King's Speech stars Colin Firth as British monarch George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II, as he comes to power in 1936 while struggling to overcome a lifelong stammer. The film, which has early Academy Awards buzz as a potential front-runner, gradually expands to more theatres through the holidays.
The top ten
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released on Monday.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, $50.3m.
2. Tangled, $49.1m.
3. Megamind, $12.9m.
4. Burlesque, $11.8m.
5. Unstoppable, $11.75m.
6. Love & Other Drugs, $9.9m.
7. Faster, $8.7m.
8. Due Date, $7.3m.
9. The Next Three Days, $4.8m.
10. Morning Glory, $4m.
