'Dawn' tops sluggish weekend

'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Beginning -- Part 1'The weekend's insufficient new records did not supply the positive impact on Stateside holdovers that some B.O. experts had predicted it might, because the frame's top gamers "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Beginning -- Part 1" and "The Muppets" both saw relatively steep weekend-to-weekend three-day declines. Summit's "Breaking Beginning," which won its third straight frame by having an believed $16.9 million, fell 59%, while Disney's second-place pic "The Muppets" dropped 62% in the soph sesh to have an believed weekend gross of $11.two million. "Breaking Beginning" has cumed through Sunday $247.3 million "Muppets," $56.a million. "The Muppets" fell beyond expected, especially since family photos typically display the most powerful legs. However the film faced an abnormally crowded family area, compounded using the typical publish-Thanksgiving B.O. downturn. Overall domestic box office was lower roughly 7% from this past year. Comparatively, B.O. conditions were better -- if perhaps just -- for "Breaking Beginning." Last Year, the 2nd "Twilight" offering, "New Moon," dropped 64% throughout this identical weekend. That pic, however, performed from the stalwart femme-skewing "The Blind Side -- as well as three new wide releases. "Breaking Beginning" has got the youthful femme market mostly to itself. Bowing solid in limited release, Fox Searchlight's NC-17-ranked "Shame" came an believed per-screen average of $36,118 from 10 locations. "An NC-17 film certainly poses certain challenges," stated Searchlight professional Vice president of distribution Sheila DeLoach. "But we are receiving targeted notices from experts, to ensure that should allow us to with the holidays." Searchlight also worked out fairly well with "The Descendants," growing the pic to 574 locations (up 141 from a week ago), by having an believed weekend gross of $5.two million. That's off only 29% from last weekend's three-day holiday take. To date, "Descendants" has totalled $18.a million locally. The Weinstein Co. niche pair, "My Week With Marilyn" and "The Artist," held steady after their solid debuts a week ago. "Marilyn," which maintained an area count of 244, dropped an excellent 33% to have an believed $1.two million three-day gross, while "The Artist" obtained a per-screen average of $34,263 from six engagements, two a lot more than a week ago. Both photos saw solid upticks on Saturday versus. a week ago -- a substantial achievement, with all this weekend's overall sluggish B.O. atmosphere. "Marilyn" has cumed $3.9 million "Artist," nearly $500,000. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com