HOLLYWOOD - Harry Potter pigged out at the Thanksgiving box office, stuffing Warner Bros. pockets with $83.5 million for the five day holiday weekend.Despite Harry's hearty appetite, there still were good box office drumsticks for Buena Vista/Disney and Pixar Animation Studios' Monsters, Inc. and Universal and Beacon Pictures' opening of Spy Game. There were, however, only leftovers for everyone else -- including 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises' opening of Black Knight and Buena Vista/Touchstone and Spyglass Entertainment's launch of Out Cold.
With Harry's post-Thanksgiving cume at $188 million, it should hit $400 million at the domestic box office over the Christmas holiday period.
Monsters finished its Thanksgiving feast with nearly $193 million, putting it on the track for a domestic theatrical gross of $275-300 million.
Even with the frenzy over Harry, this year's Thanksgiving marketplace weighed in several pounds less than last year. Key films -- those grossing at least $500,000 for the five days -- took in about $211 million, down nearly 12 percent from last Thanksgiving's five day total of $238.7 million.
A year ago Universal's second weekend of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas dominated days with $73.5 million for five days while Buena Vista/Touchstone's opening of Unbreakable was a strong second with $46 million. This year although Harry was a lot bigger than Grinch, the number two film, Monsters, took in $13 million less than Unbreakable.