“Tangled” climbs to No. 1

On the slowest movie weekend of the year, “Tangled” jumped over “Harry Potter” to be first at the box office with about $21 million. Business was cut in half from last week thanks to no notable new releases.

1. Tangled – $21.6 M (weekend) … $96.5 M (gross)
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 – $17 M … $244.5 M
3. Burlesque – $6.1 M … $26.9 M
4. Unstoppable – $5.9 M … $68.7 M
5. Love and Other Drugs – $5.6 M … $22.5
6. Megamind – $4.9 M  … $136.6 M
7. Due Date – $4.1 M … $90.8 M
8. Faster – $3.9 M … $18.2 M
9. The Warrior’s Way – $3 M … $3 M
10. The Next Three Days – $2.5 M … $18.3 M

On the indie circuit, Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” had an impressive opening of $1.4 million in 18 theaters. That’s more than $80,000 in business per theater, which ranks about the Top 20 in all time per theater averages for an opening. Believe it or not, it was not as good as last week’s opening per theater average of $88,000-plus in four theaters for “The King’s Speech.”

As far as position, the Thanksgiving hangover hurt “Megamind” the most with “Tangled” being the fresher animated film and Paramount pulling it from more than 200 theaters. “Unstoppable,” on the other hand, stayed in the top five again for the fourth week in a row. That will of course change quickly when the newest “Narnia” film and “The Tourist” enter theaters to spur on the Christmas portion of the holiday movie season.