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What a profitable Thanksgiving it turned out to be for Hollywood! The biggest Thanksgiving box office ever actually. The holiday five-day weekend was up from last year when Four Christmases took the top spot. However this time around, The Twilight Saga: New Moon nabbed #1 for the second weekend in a row. Chris Weitz’s tween-targeted hit raked in another $42.5 million since Friday and $67 million since Wednesday. This comes as no surprise, though. There were no major competitors to New Moon’s crown that opened in theaters for the holiday traffic. Even Disney’s Old Dogs, which was expected to be a big success, sort of bombed in the face of Moon. The film’s total is now up to $230.7 million in two weeks, $111 million more than last fall’s Twilight had bagged at this time. Wow!

Sure, nothing topped the latest vampire love story; however the biggest surprise this weekend was how much Sandra Bullock’s The Blind Side took in. Last weekend the sports drama (which had the highest opening for a movie in its genre) debuted in second place with $34.1 million, but this weekend it stayed at #2 and went up 17.6% to an annual sum of $40.1 million. This brings its domestic total to $100.3 million in two weeks. Not bad, John Lee Hancock.

Nothing seemed to shake the top three, as 2012 also remained at #3 with $18 million, down 31.8% from last weekend’s haul of $26.4 million. Roland Emmerich’s disaster pic now has a grand sum of $138.8 million, which is still a good $61.2 million away from making back the $200 million the film took to make. Old Dogs had the biggest surprise opening this weekend in my opinion, opening behind 2012 with $16.8 million, barely barking up Wild Hogs $39.7 million debut in March 2007.

A Christmas Carol (which I finally saw this weekend, by the way, and heartily enjoyed) rounds off the top five with just about $16 million. Robert Zemeckis’s movie, starring Jim Carrey, now has a sum of $105.4 million in nearly a month.

Out of the top five-

• James McTeigue’s highly-hyped Ninja Assassin only seemed to attract the fanboys interested, coming in beneath Carol with $13.1 million.
• The nationwide release of Fantastic Mr. Fox helped the Wes Anderson film skyrocket up 3,349.4% to the ninth spot with $7 million.
• John Hillcoat’s The Road, based on the bestseller by Cormac McCarthy, opened just out of the top ten at #11 with $1.5 million in 111 theaters. With an expansion in the coming weeks, the movie’s money pile will undoubtedly only grow larger.
• Disney’s third movie in release, the 2-D highly-awaited The Princess and the Frog did quite well in only two theaters, grossing $712,000. A nationwide expansion on December 11^th will surely help the movie land somewhere in the top ten.
• The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, starring Robin Wright Penn, debuted with $96,000 in 12 theaters.
• The positive reviews (an 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) for Zac Efron’s first official “grown-up” movie Me and Orson Welles only added to the film rallying $64,800 in only four theaters.

Here are the box office results according to studio estimates Sunday:

1. 1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon…$42.5 million
2. 2. The Blind Side…$40.1 million
3. 3. 2012…$18 million
4. 4. Old Dogs…$16.8 million
5. 5. A Christmas Carol (2009)…$16 million
6. 6. Ninja Assassin…$13.1 million
7. 7. Planet 51…$10.2 million
8. 8. Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire…$7.1 million
9. 9. Fantastic Mr. Fox…$7 million
10. 10. The Men Who Stare At Goats…$1.5 million

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“Ninja Assassin” is simply awesome.  If Ninja Assassin would be able to describe itself in first person, this is how it would go. 1) I am a movie about a ninja who turns against his clan to seek revenge on his master 2) I am a movie that spits blood like “300″ 3) I am a movie that is based solely on unrealistic, out-of-control action and martial arts scenes 4) I am movie that wants to provide pure entertainment and nothing else 5) I know who I am and want to be nothing more.

The Korean mega pop star Rain plays Raizo, the emotionless Bruce Wayne of his martial arts clan. And by Bruce Wayne, I am referring to the Bruce Wayne who was the finest student at the famous League of Shadows ninja school.  Rain commands plenty of presence on screen and the rest of the cast provides enough support to keep his character Raizo in situations that require him to kick as much ass as possible.  It gets humorous after a while how dumb some of the characters really are.  Though “Ninja Assassin” is implausible on countless levels, the character of Raizo keeps his emotionless attitude consistent throughout the movie.

Please go into this movie understanding that you are about to put yourself through one gory movie. However, the gore is not horror movie gore, but rather Sin City type gore.  Body parts fly around in this movie as much as John MacClane drops f bombs in Die Hard; weapons cut through limbs like a knife through butter.

While this movie is as outlandish a movie I’ve seen in some time, it is still straight cool: the weapons, the movement, the fighting.  The film also successfully capitalizes on a world of CGI with the Wachowski Brothers, creators of The Matrix, as producers.  Fans of The Matrix will fall in love with this movie.

You will cover your eyes if you can’t deal with violence and you will sigh in awe after some of the moves that Raizo is able to pull off.  Overall, “Ninja Assassin” is worth the price of admission; it is one heck of an entertaining movie that will keep your eyes glued to the screen eagerly awaiting the next ninja-vs-ninja fight.  GO SEE IT!

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