Nearly doubling Wednesday's second place title, Summit's "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1" kick started Thanksgiving weekend with $12.5 million, while Disney's "The Muppets" followed with an opening day tally of $6.6 million.
"Breaking Dawn" has tallied so far $171.5 million domestically in just six days.
In third place, Warner Bros.' second-week holdover "Happy Feet Two" collected $2.9 million, bringing its current Stateside cume to $28.3 million.
The holiday's remaining debut pair, Sony's "Arthur Chrismas" and Paramount's "Hugo," came in within hailing distance of each other in Wednesday grosses, earning $1.9 million and $1.7 million, respectively. "Arthur Christmas" is expected to pull ahead of "Hugo" over the long weekend, with more family appeal, while "Hugo," which pre-weekend tracking services had pegged to earn in five days in the low-double digits, is playing mostly to a adult prestige crowd.
Meanwhile, weekend estimates for "The Muppets" are somewhere in the $40 millions for five days.
Moviegoing traffic will slow down considerably today, but is expected to pick up after the holiday through Sunday, especially with the frames family-skewing product.
"Breaking Dawn" collected roughly $1.5 million less than "New Moon," when it played during this exact corridor in 2009. That pic grossed over the long Thanksgiving holiday $66 million.
Contact Andrew Stewart at
andrew.stewart@variety.com