BOX OFFICE BEAT DOWN: Four Christmases Dominates Thanksgiving Weekend with $31.6 Million

Weekend Box Office

1) Four Christmases $31.6 million

2) Bolt $26.5 million

3) Twilight $26.3 million

4) Quantum of Solace $19.5 million

5) Australia $14.8 million

6) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa $14.5 million

7) Transporter 3 $12.3 million

8) Role Models $5.2 million

9) The Boy in the Striped Pajamas $1.6 million

10) Milk $1.3 million

This holiday weekend, folks decided to spend their time with an on-screen couple going through the trials and tribulations of Christmas day. In an amazing upset, it was Four Christmases that took the number one spot on the box office charts this Thanksgiving. The comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon pulled in an unexpected $31.6 million, pushing those pesky Vampires from Twilight all the way down to third place with $26.3 million. So far, this very popular adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's novel has grossed $119.6 million in just two weeks of release.

Bella and Edward would have stayed strong in second place if it hadn't been for that pesky pup Bolt. The Disney animated film moved up a notch this weekend, conquering Twilight by a mere couple of points. It earned $26.5 for the number two spot on the charts. Thus far, it has taken in a cumulative gross of $66.8 million.

Two other new films opened to a mild reception. Baz Luhrmann's latest epic Australia nabbed the number five spot with an earnest take of $14.8 million. It was Jason Statham's latest action extravaganza that really felt the punch of this family oriented holiday weekend. His Transporter 3 dropped in at number seven with just $12.3 million to its name. The original film only made $9.1 million its opening weekend, but its The Transporter 2 that has the best track record to date. It made $16.5 million when it was released in September of 2005.

The film with the best per screen average this weekend was Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic Milk. Opening in just 36 theaters, the film averaged an astounding $38,361 for a take of $1.3 million in tenth place. That means, given the 3,310 screens held by Four Christmases, Milk could have potentially made $1 billion dollars, marking it as the number one box office grosser of all time. Take that, The Dark Knight!

Next weekend is a quick grab for cash that will most likely belong to the return of Frank Castle in Punisher: War Zone. Two Oscar contenders will be vying for tickets as Cadillac Records and Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon open against each other. And you can also look for Nobel Son to make some noise.