25 Highest Grossing Thanksgiving Releases: 'Toy Story 2,' 'Back to the Future II' and '101 Dalmations' Gobble Up Hollywood.com's Box Office Report

25 Highest Grossing Thanksgiving Releases: 'Toy Story 2,' 'Back to the Future II' and '101 Dalmations' Gobble Up Hollywood.com's Box Office Report

Hollywood.com Holiday Analysis Proves Moviegoers Want Laughs and Cheer During Holiday Season

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- After the turkey, moviegoers always come back for seconds -- of sequels. Using current U.S. average ticket prices, Hollywood.com ( http://www.hollywood.com/ ) adjusted the box office performances for films released during Thanksgiving weekend from 1985 through 2004, and found that 40% of the top 10 turkey openers were second, third or fourth installments of a movie franchise.

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Although 1999's "Toy Story 2" was the clear leader, the only post- millennium film to break the top 10 was "Haunted Mansion," which ranked number 10. Measured against other films that were released over the same Thanksgiving time period, the hit "Three Men and a Baby" ranked 15th, but earned a number three spot for its overall box office performance. On average, films that placed in the top 25 on the Thanksgiving box office list raked in nearly one third of their total domestic box office receipts during this crucial five-day period. This clearly indicates how important a strong opening weekend can be to a movie's overall earning potential.

"Historically, Thanksgiving opening weekend is the bellwether for the overall holiday movie season, which makes Hollywood.com's most recent adjusted box office report particularly significant," said Steven Marder, vice president of Hollywood.com. "While sequels populated the top 10 of our highest grossing list, comedies and a few holiday themed movies also fared well. And even though most films that experienced success during their Thanksgiving opening continued to perform well at the box office, some films that experienced weaker openings built momentum over the season to finish strong."

Hollywood.com computed its findings by tallying domestic box office receipts from movies that opened Thanksgiving weekend for both their opening weekend and overall, and then adjusting the performances to current U.S. average ticket prices.

Adjusted
Opening Opening
Rank Titles Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Total Adjusted Total Gross
Weekend Box Weekend Box Gross Domestic Domestic
Office 1 2 Office 2 Box Office 1 Box Office

1 Toy Story 2
(Walt Disney/
1999) $98,384,446 $80,481,962 $300,504,586 $245,823,397

2 Back to the
Future II
(Universal
Pictures/
1989) $67,287,344 $43,016,225 $182,116,738 $116,425,676

3 101 Dalmations
(Walt Disney/
1996) $63,327,218 $45,073,479 $191,332,855 $136,182,161

4 Rocky IV
(MGM/1985) $55,575,310 $31,770,105 $219,379,071 $125,409,936

5 Flubber
(Walt Disney/
1997) $48,559,807 $35,892,031 $125,782,703 $92,969,824

6 Star Trek IV
(Paramount
Pictures/
1986) $42,519,863 $25,402,366 $175,328,826 $104,745,563

7 Mrs. Doubtfire
(20th Century
Fox/1993) $41,337,048 $27,558,032 $328,792,160 $219,194,773

8 End of Days
(Universal
Pictures/
1999) $38,518,839 $31,509,775 $81,734,930 $66,862,068

9 The Bodyguard
(Warner
Brothers/
1992) $36,515,648 $24,402,567 $181,574,591 $121,342,118

10 The Haunted
Mansion
(Walt Disney/
2003) $35,062,413 $34,046,111 $78,081,218 $75,817,994

11 Alien
Resurrection
(20th Century
Fox/1997) $34,891,616 $25,789,455 $64,601,061 $47,748,610

12 Christmas with
the Kranks
(Columbia
Pictures/
2004) $30,818,212 $30,818,212 $73,701,902 $73,701,902

13 Scrooged
(Paramount
Pictures/
1988) $28,025,319 $18,548,158 $87,876,672 $58,159,923

14 My Girl
(Columbia
Pictures/
1991) $25,391,963 $17,214,197 $81,418,633 $55,196,851

15 Three Men and
a Baby
(Touchstone
Pictures/
1987) $22,105,130 $13,918,045 $266,475,642 $167,780,960

16 Alexander
(Warner
Brothers/
2004) $21,837,517 $21,837,517 $34,293,771 $34,293,771

17 Behind Enemy
Lines
(20th Century
Fox/2001) $20,556,782 $18,736,133 $64,574,929 $58,855,732

18 Junior
(Universal
Pictures/
1994) $19,968,797 $13,441,155 $54,552,324 $36,719,600

19 Treasure
Planet
(Walt Disney/
2002) $17,742,551 $16,599,714 $40,745,033 $38,120,554

20 Bad Santa
(Dimension
Studios/
2003) $17,302,715 $16,801,187 $61,850,404 $60,057,639

21 A Low Down
Dirty Shame
(Buena Vista/
1994) $16,964,827 $11,419,159 $43,663,421 $29,390,193

22 A Perfect
World
(Warner
Brothers/
1993) $16,871,939 $11,247,959 $44,621,645 $29,747,763

23 Planes, Trains
and
Automobiles
(Paramount
Pictures/
1987) $16,090,796 $10,131,242 $76,508,120 $48,171,779

24 The Missing
(Columbia
Pictures/
2003) $15,686,982 $15,232,287 $27,703,331 $26,900,336

25 Adam Sandler's
Eight Crazy
Nights
(Columbia
Pictures/
2002) $15,012,214 $14,045,244 $25,057,108 $23,443,124

TOTALS $846,355,296 $634,932,317 $2,912,271,674 $2,093,062,247

1 Adjusted Gross Domestic Box Office figures are derived based on the
total domestic gross of the film, divided by average ticket price in the
year of release, multiplied by 2004 average ticket price ($6.21).
Average annual ticket prices source: MPAA.

2 Thanksgiving weekend was considered as Wednesday through Sunday for
purposes of this comparison.

Check out Hollywood.com's lists of the Top Grossing films in various genres:

Top 25 Highest Grossing Horror Films of All Time:
http://www.hollywood.com/movies/feature/id/3466506

Top 25 Highest Grossing Comedy Films of All Time:
http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/3467963

Top 25 Highest Grossing Thanksgiving Releases:
http://www.hollywood.com/movies/feature/id/3469241

About Hollywood.com

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Source: Hollywood.com

CONTACT: Melissa Zukerman, Hollywood.com, +1-310-407-0361, or
Melissa@zukermanpr.com

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http://www.hollywood.com/movies/feature/id/3466506
http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/3467963
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