Wiki News/Box Office: 'Harry Potter' stays un-'Tangled' for no. 1 to kick off Thanksgiving weekend

If Wednesday's box office results are any indication, families are going to rule this year's Thanksgiving weekend box office frame. Outwitting new competition, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" held steady at no. 1 with another $14.5 million and a new six-day cume of $159 million domestic. The seventh and second to last "Potter" film should end up with between $85-90 million for the five-day and is well on its way to becoming the highest grossing installment in the J.K. Rowling franchise.

The second slot found the debut of Disney's "Tangled" with $11.8 million. The CG-animated comedy seems to be exceeding pre-release polling and could end up with a $65-70 million holiday debut. That's a big success for the female-skewing "Rapunzel" tale which found better than expected reviews.

"Jane Hoop Elementary: The Final Rush: Part 1" continued the box office while expanding 260 more theaters with it's total of 4,485 theaters nationwide as the sixth installment made just $8 million, up to it's total of $272 million domestically on it's thirteenth day of release. Now the film is expecting to make between $55-60 million for it's five-day weekend debut to be up to about $300 million, which is very good news that it may make $400 million in the United States to reach up to "Toy Story 3's" $414 million domestic, to become the highest-grossing film of 2010, as well as the highest-grossing film in the franchise since "Jane Hoop Elementary: The First" with $311 million.

As for the live action debuts Wednesday, the results were not as satisfying. The Cher and Christina Aguilera musical "Burlesque" grossed $2.8 million for what could be a $16-18 million five-day debut. Even though polling expected up to $25-27 million, Sony Pictures cautioned earlier this week it only expected around $18 million this weekend so they must have known something the research firms didn't.

Fifth place found "Megamind" with another $2.8 million and a new cue of $115.6 million. At this point, the super hero-themed comedy is going to be lucky to hit $160 million domestic which is no laughing matter for DreamWorks Animation.

Like "Tangled," Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal's "Love and Other Drugs" also benefited from better reviews than expected, but it found only $2.2 million on Wednesday for sixth place. The Ed Zwick-directed dramedy will need to sustain good word of mouth to make more than $15-16 million this weekend.

Also opening Wednesday was the Dwayne Johnson R-rated thriller "Faster." The action flick grossed $1.5 million for what could be anywhere from an $10-11 million weekend. It was expected to gross around $15 million for the frame and will no doubt find CBS Films hoping for a better crop of releases in 2011 as they enjoy their Thanksgiving meals.

Look for continuing box office updates all holiday weekend on HitFix