'Harry Potter' Stays Aloft for Holidays

Nov. 26 -- To no one's surprise, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone took the Thanksgiving box-office crown, claiming another record in the process: Potter's $58.5 million Friday-to-Sunday gross trumps Toy Story 2's $57.4 million over the holiday weekend in 1999.

Having tied Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace as the fastest movie to make $100 million (both films did so in four days), Potter now has an outside shot at beating or tying that film's record for the fastest accumulation of $200 million (in 13 days).

Three new arrivals — Spy Game, Black Knight and Out Cold — weren't enough to dislodge Monsters, Inc. from the No. 2 spot. The Pixar/Disney release is now within spitting distance of $200 million, and is on pace to match or top the grosses of Shrek, which will also surely be its chief rival in the race for the new animated feature Oscar.

The Robert Redford/Brad Pitt thriller Spy Game was the strongest new arrival, making more in one weekend than Redford's October release, The Last Castle, has managed in six.

A soft opening for Martin Lawrence's Black Knight again proves that people won't see the guy in just anything, while an even softer one for Out Cold means we won't see more extreme sports-oriented teen romantic comedies with evil real-estate developer villains anytime soon.

With the next round of big movies on tap for December — only the Owen Wilson/Gene Hackman military drama Behind Enemy Lines and the Hilary Swank costumer The Affair of the Necklace go wide on Nov. 30 — the Potter/Monsters melee will likely dominate next week's box-office headlines as well.

Andrew Johnston is a film critic and associate editor at US WEEKLY magazine.