Below are the top 12 weekend final numbers from the North American box office:

1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $142,839,137
2. The Blind Side - $34,119,372
3. 2012 - $26,410,206
4. Planet 51 - $12,286,129
5. A Christmas Carol (2009) - $12,275,024
6. Precious - $10,881,772
7. The Men Who Stare At Goats - $2,829,031
8. Couples Retreat - $1,943,075
9. The Fourth Kind - $1,747,085
10. Michael Jackson's This Is It - $1,617,417
11. Law Abiding Citizen - $1,606,053
12. Pirate Radio - $1,460,592

Overall, the US Box Office was up 93% on last weekend's gross.

The box office felt a bit like summer this weekend as a franchise with a fanatical fan base turned in to a full blown box office sensation. NEW MOON opened to an astonishing $142.8 million this weekend, the best opening weekend in November and the third biggest opening weekend of all time behind THE DARK KNIGHT and SPIDERMAN 3. The film cost only $50 million to make and to say that its performance is extraordinary would be an understatement.

In spite of NEW MOON's mammoth opening, there were other films this weekend which managed to do great business, if not in the same league as the vampire flick. Sandra Bullock's football film THE BLIND SIDE opened with a much better than expected $34.1 million over the weekend. Likewise, returning films 2012 and A CHRISTMAS CAROL held well, earning $26.4 million and $12.2 million with a loss of audience of 59.5% and 45% respectively.

Also doing well is PRECIOUS, which managed to increase its audience by 85% this weekend to earn a healthy $10.8 million from an increased venue count of 629. The platform release has done very well, earning $21.1 million against a $10 million budget.

The only other new opener, the animated PLANET 51, had an average take at the box office with only $12.2 million. It may have got lost in the shuffle with all the competition, with the young demographics choosing other films.

The Top 12 at the US Box Office took in a total of $250,014,893 for the whole of the weekend 20-22 November 2009.