With no wide-releases debuting this weekend, the top tier of the domestic box office should look very much like last week's Thanksgiving derby, only tighter.
Summit Entertainment's front-running "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1" is bound to lose some bite going into its third weekend, while Disney's PG-rated "The Muppets" is just entering its second frame, so the two could wind up neck and neck with grosses in the high teens.
This leaves a PG-rated bottleneck in sub-$10 million territory for Paramount's "Hugo," Warner Bros.' "Happy Feet Two," Sony's "Arthur Christmas" and "Jack and Jill," also from Sony.
Yet because of this lineup's lack of action material, Relativity Media's "Immortals" will enjoy a virtual lock on the 18-to-24 male demographic and thus could make its mark in the top five, even as it enters its fourth week.
Audiences will have to wait for Dec 9 for a couple of new wide-releases to jump start the marketplace — the R-rated Jonah Hill comedy "The Sitter" from Fox and the PG-13-rated ensemble rom-com "New Year's Eve" from Warner Bros.
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Paul Dergarabedian is president of the Box Office Division of Hollywood.com and provides box office analysis for The Associated Press.
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