‘Enchanted’ makes some holiday magic

The musical fairy tale “Enchanted” gave the movie industry something to be thankful for over the holiday weekend: a hit.

The PG-rated Walt Disney Co. picture, starring Amy Adams as an animated princess whisked to modern-day, live-action Manhattan, grossed an estimated $50 million from Wednesday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, one of the biggest hauls ever for the Thanksgiving period.

“My wife and I went to four theaters in New York to see how the movie was playing and the response was amazing,” producer Barry Josephson said. “Everybody understood the concept of a fairy tale with animated characters coming to life, but what caught people off guard was how funny it was.”

Audiences were in the mood for holiday cheer, as the African American-oriented comedy-drama “This Christmas,” from Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems division, took in a surprisingly robust $27 million to rank No. 2.

Last weekend’s top-grossing film, “Beowulf,” the animated adventure based on the epic Old English poem, slipped to No. 3.

Overall receipts rose 3% from the extended Thanksgiving period in 2006, said Media by Numbers, in the wake of two weekends of year-over-year declines.

Disney often targets the Thanksgiving span to launch key pictures, whereas its rivals typically use the weekend before the holiday to get a head start. In 2006, for example, Thanksgiving weekend’s top movies were holdovers “Happy Feet” from Warner Bros. and “Casino Royale” from Sony, while Disney’s thriller “Deja Vu” was the strongest of the new releases.

The industry’s five top openings ever for the holiday period all were distributed by Disney, including record-holder “Toy Story 2,” which grossed $80.1 million in 1999. “Enchanted” ranks a distant second, followed by “A Bug’s Life,” “Unbreakable” and the 1996 version of “101 Dalmatians.”

“Enchanted” drew a heavy contingent of family filmgoers, as expected, but Disney said it played broadly, with almost half the audience over age 25. Enthusiastic reviews helped: RottenTomatoes.com said 93% were positive.

The movie co-stars Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden and Susan Sarandon, but critics are calling it a star-making vehicle for Adams the way “Mary Poppins” was for Julie Andrews.

The modestly budgeted “This Christmas” benefited from grass-roots marketing. Screen Gems used activities such as singing contests at shopping malls to promote the movie, whose ensemble cast includes Delroy Lindo, Chris Brown and Mekhi Phifer.

Sixty-five percent of the film’s opening weekend audience was black, Sony said.

“The movie works because of its universal subject matter: all that comes with families -- the good, the bad and the funny,” said Rory Bruer, the studio’s president of domestic distribution.

Three other new releases cracked the top 10.

The thriller “Hitman,” adapted from the video game and starring “Live Free or Die Hard” villain Timothy Olyphant, ranked fourth with an estimated $21 million despite brutal reviews. The audience was 65% male and 65% under age 25, said studio 20th Century Fox.

“August Rush,” a musical fantasy drama starring Freddie Highmore from 2005’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as a cello prodigy, opened to about $13 million for Warner Bros.

“The Mist,” an adult-oriented horror film based on a Stephen King story, also grossed $13 million. Reviews have been generally positive for the latest King adaptation from writer-director Frank Darabont, whose hits include “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile.”

The movie was produced by Weinstein Co.’s Dimension Films and distributed by MGM. It probably won’t match the success of “1408,” their collaboration earlier this year that grossed $107 million worldwide, but it could hold up well.

“Adult horror doesn’t play like kids’ horror, where they all show up on the opening Friday night,” said Clark Woods, MGM’s domestic distribution president.

One of this year’s awards-season contenders, the Coen brothers’ crime drama “No Country for Old Men,” aced its first true test, expanding to nearly 900 locations and ranking with “Enchanted” and “This Christmas” in terms of average revenue per theater.

“There has been a lot of talk about the struggles of independent film and projects that are not light, fluffy comedies, but this breaks that supposed trend,” said Daniel Battsek, president of Disney’s Miramax Films.

Spinning records: In Hollywood, no box-office record is too modest to claim and no distributor is too modest to claim it. Weinstein noted that its art-house release “I’m Not There,” inspired by the life and music of Bob Dylan, grossed $1 million in the extended holiday period -- “easily” a record opening for filmmaker Todd Haynes. His previous bests were $301,787 for “Velvet Goldmine” and $211,279 for “Far from Heaven.”

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josh.friedman@latimes.com