The Twilight express rolled back into town with the fifth biggest domestic opening weekend in history on an estimated $139.5m – a tremendous achievement that ranks one place behind New Moon on $142.8m.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1’s iconic cast of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner proved way too much for the competition as the penultimate entry in the $1bn-plus global franchise forced Warner Bros’ new animation sequel Happy Feet Two into second place on $22m.

Relativity’s Immortals fell to number three in its second weekend and has amassed $52.9m, while Sony’s Adam Sandler vehicle Jack And Jill ranks fourth in its second weekend on $41m. DreamWorks Animation’s Puss In Boots has amassed $122.3m through Paramount after four weekends.

J Edgar directed by Clint Eastwood ranks seventh on $20.7m through Warner Bros after two weekends.

Next weekend promises a spectacular showdown as Breaking Dawn will face stiff competition from a trio of highly accomplished family films: Aardman Animation and Columbia Pictures Animation’s Yuletide treat Arthur Christmas, Buena Vista’s The Muppets and Paramount/GK Films’ Hugo from Martin Scorsese.

Estimated Top 10 North America Nov 18-20, 2011
Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (-) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (Summit) Summit Int’l $139.5m –

2 (-) Happy Feet Two (Warner Bros) WBPI $22m –

3 (1) Immortals (Relativity) Lionsgate/Relativity/Universal $12.3m $52.9m

4 (2) Jack And Jill (Sony) SPRI $12m $41m

5 (3) Puss In Boots (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) PPI $10.7m $122.3m

6 (4) Tower Heist (Universal) UPI $7m $53.4m

7 (5) J Edgar (Warner Bros) WBPI $5.9m $20.7m

8 (6) A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (Warner Bros-New Line) WBPI $2.9m $28.3m

9 (8) Paranormal Activity 3 (Paramount) PPI $1m $102.6m

10 (9) Footloose (Paramount) PPI $835,000 $50.1m

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