Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 Takes #1 Box Office Spot For Third Week In A Row

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 has finished No. 1 at the box office for the third week in a row. The first part of Stephanie Meyers’ last book in the series managed to rake in another $16.9 million on the domestic market, remaining No. 1 after 17 days in wide release.

With nearly $17 million more in the bank Twilight’s newest offering has taken in $247.3 million in North America, still slight less than the $255.4 million New Moon raked in back in 2009.

When all was said and done taking number one wasn’t hard during a weekend that saw just $82 million in sales. The critic and fan raved about movie The Muppets was expected to take the top spot from Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart but despite excellent reviews it managed just $11.2 million, taking it’s total to $56.1 million since Thanksgiving.

There is some good news for Muppets fans, after debuting with a 65% adult fan base over the age of 18 it at least appears in part that this past weekends audience was younger, meaning a nice transition to a new generation of Muppets fans.

In other box office news Hugo fell to $7.6 million while Arthur Christmas had a take of just $7.4 million. Both of those movies were offered in 3-D which usually helps push up box office take because of the higher cost associated with 3D movies.

There may still be some good news for the $150 million Hugo production as Paramount Pictures has expanded the movie into 1,800 locations amid amazing critical reviews of the movie and increasing talk of awards season buzz.

Are you surprised that the critically panned Breaking Dawn has managed to hold onto the top spot for 3 weeks in a row?