LOS ANGELES - Disney's fairy-tale comedy "Enchanted" swept North American box-office this weekend with collections of $35.3 million. However the films has had the second-biggest Thanksgiving holiday opening with five-day collections of $50 million, according to data released by Nielsen EDI.
The five-day collections were second only to Toy Story 2, which was released in 1999 and raked in $80 million in the five-day period. Enchanted is a gentle poke at Disney's own blockbusters like "Snow White," "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty." It tells the story of a princess, who is banished from fairy land and learns the meaning of love in downtown Manhattan.
"On a weekend like this, families are really looking hard for something they can go out and see together," said Chuck Viane, the head of distribution at Disney. "Generally, audiences don't want to see grim things. And there are a lot of grim movies out there right now."
Close behind Enchanted was another comedy "This Christmas," which raked in $27.1 million over its first five days. Animated fantasy Beowulf was pushed to the third spot and had to be happy with weekend collections of $16.2 million.
Hitman was fourth this weekend with collections of $13 million, while Bee Movie slipped to the fifth spot with collections of $12 million.
Commenting on the figures, Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office analysts Media By Numbers, said that based on the collections so far, this could end up being the second or third-biggest Thanksgiving weekend for Hollywood.
