‘Tangled’ Tops Soft Friday Box Office at $5.2M; ‘Warrior’s Way’ Wayward at $1.1M

Overall market down 13% year-to-year on a weekend that’s one of the slowest on the calendar anyway; martial-arts Western, the only film released wide this weekend, way underperforms

Post-Thanksgiving box-office performances just don't get much more lackluster than this.

With the overall domestic market down 13 percent Friday from the same downer weekend last year, Disney's 3D-animated holdover "Tangled" led all comers, grossing an estimated $5.2 million, according to studio data.

On a weekend that typically features the release calendar's steepest week-to-week revenue decline, only one film was released wide, Relativity's R-rated martial-arts Western "Warrior's Way," and it underperformed even its very modest pre-release expectations with only $1.1 million Friday.

Fox Searchlight's Darren Aronofsky erotic drama "Black Swan" led a flurry of limited releases, grossing an estimated $425,872 at 18 locations for a middling $23,659-per-screen average.

Magnolia's Ryan Gosling murder drama "All Good Things" (an estimated $11,000 at two locations) and Roadhouse Attractions' Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor gay-con-men comedy "I Love You, Phillip Morris" ($30,000 at 11 locations) rounded out the flurry of unspectacular performances from R-rated limited releases.

Here's how the top 10 finished. Full report continues below chart:

Released in 1,622 and representing Relativity's first self-distributed title since it acquired Overture's marketing and distribution units for $10 million last summer, "Warrior's Way" stars Korean action hero Dong-gun Jang and Kate Bosworth.

The film, independently shot in New Zealand for around $45 million and distributed by Relativity under service deal, had been forecast to do around $5 million worth of business in the U.S. this weekend, but probably won't even make it close to that moribund figure.

Disney's "Tangled," meanwhile, will probably be the only film to make it to the $20 million mark this weekend. It will be followed by Warner's fast-dropping "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1," which is pacing to slip well over 60 percent in weekend three.

Sony Cher/Christina Aguilera musical "Burlesque" is on track to finish in third place, grossing $2 million Friday and on pace for a $6.2 million weekend.

Thursday preview:

The crash after the big Turkey Day feast at the box office is always intense.

In fact, the weekend after Thanksgiving typically yields the steepest week-to-week revenue drop of the year, and this upcoming three-day period should be no different, with only one new movie, Relativity's R-rated martial-arts western "Warrior's Way," debuting wide.

Conversely, it'll be a big weekend for limited debuts of small films with awards hopes, with "I Love You, Phillip Morris," "Black Swan" and "All Good Things" also making their premieres.

Debuting at 1,622 theaters in the U.S., "Warrior's Way" was independently produced for $42 million and acquired by Relativity through service deal.

Starring Dong-gun Jang — "the Tom Cruise of Korea!" as one Relativity staffer describes him — it's the first film to be distributed by Relativity, following the company's $10 million purchase of Overture's distribution and marketing units in July.

Studio officials expect to gross around $5 million initially across their U.S. engagements, which will put the film well behind such dominant incumbents as Warner's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" and Disney's "Tangled."

Debuting in 18 theaters, meanwhile, Fox Searchlight's Darren Aronofsky-directed "Black Swan" is an R-rated erotic thriller, with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis playing ballerinas who cope with the professional rivalry … and sexual tension.

The film was produced for $17 million while garnering an 83 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and limited awards heat.

Also exploring same-sex relations and getting solid reviews (80 percent fresh), Roadside Attraction's "I Love You, Phillip Morris" will start out in six big-city locations.

Starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, and produced by Luc Besson's EuroCorp, the film wallowed in North American-distribution limbo for much of the year, with EuroCorp battling the film's first contracted domestic distributor, Consolidated Pictures, in court before Roadside stepped in and saved the day.

The R-rated comedy has already grossed $18.7 million internationally.

Debuting in two L.A./NYC locations, meanwhile, Magnolia's Andrew Jarecki-directed "All Good Things" stars Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst and portrays the real-life murder mystery surrounding Manhattan society denizen/wife-killer Robert Durst.

The R-rated drama was produced at a cost of $20 million and reviews have not been terrific, with Rotten Tomatoes scoring it at 42 percent. Magnolia will also release writer-director Tanya Hamilton's Black Power-movement biopic "Night Catches Us" in four locations.

Also arriving amid the flood of limited releases: First Run's "Bhutto," a documentary about Pakistani political heavyweight Benazir Bhutto; and New Films Cinema's "Dead Awake," an R-rated fantasy-thriller starring Rose McGowan and Amy Smart.

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