BIG Holiday Box Office = HAPPY Industry Executives

Source: MSN.com

A dancing penguin was king of the Thanksgiving birds among movie-goers. The animated penguin romp Happy Feet remained the No. 1 movie with $37.9 million in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, while the James Bond adventure Casino Royale stayed in second place with $31 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Over the Wednesday-to-Sunday holiday period, Happy Feet, from Warner Bros., took in $51.5 million while Sony's "Casino Royale" did $45.1 million.Disney's thriller Deja Vu, starring Denzel Washington as a police officer bouncing back in time to try to prevent a deadly ferry explosion, led new movies with $20.8 million for the weekend and $29 million since opening Wednesday.

It was a sturdy but unremarkable holiday weekend overall, with the top 12 movies taking in $208.1 million from Wednesday to Sunday, down 3.4 percent from last year, when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire took in $81 million to lead Hollywood to its second-best Thanksgiving ever. The best Thanksgiving period was in 2000, when the top 12 films grossed $232.1 million.

While Happy Feet started out mainly a family film, good reviews and word-of-mouth pulled in more adults without children, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros.