The right films, course, are Happy Feet and Casino Royale which landed in the top 2 spots for the third weekend in a row. The weekend after Thanksgiving is very typically sluggish at the box office -- consider it the tryptophan to the turkey that is the prior four-day holiday weekend. This makes it a great Moguls weekend, as the top films over the holiday continue to dominate the next weekend. In this case, Feet and Casino opened the week before Turkey Day and thus have carved a huge Top 5 swath for their owners. Doing its best to command the cranberry portion of the plate, Deja Vu remained in third place. Unfortunately, it's the canned, jellied variety, as two third-place finishes give it a mere six points in the Top 5 category. After Nativity's fourth-place showing, Deck the Halls took home fifth place.

Sadly, Nativity isn’t the only casualty of the weekend. Also failing to register, to no surprise for anybody who reads our columnists regularly, were both Turistas and Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj. The Ryan Reynolds-less Wilder grossed less than $2.5 million -- which is only $2.5 million more than the home movies I shoot of my daughter. Turistas's take of less than $4 million would certainly make me concerned for the performance of other horror films still awaiting release. Yes, even with a wide-open release date of Jan. 19, I would be concerned about the prospects of The Hitcher, which has been a hot acquisition in the game since taking the place of Zodiac on the release schedule. You should also be wary if you own Black Christmas and Hostel 2 -- although Hostel 2 has a slightly better chance in that the first in the series was a hot rental, and Eli Roth has certainly developed a fan base for his sick/twisted/gruesome brand of story-telling.

In the PTA world, Volver continues to clean up, with more than $13,000 per theater, and it looks like The History Boys will take second. We'll have to await final numbers to see if Happy Feetor Casino Royale takes third, and Deja Vu appears as if it might sneak into fifth place on what is certainly a very soft weekend even for art house fare.

Of course, this upcoming weekend features four wide releases where at least three will knock Happy Feet and Casino Royale off their perch. Fantasy Moguls tracking guru Steve Mason is already talking about Apocalypto's strong numbers and why that might spell doom for Blood Diamond and The Holiday. Be sure to stay tuned to his Thursday column for the latest updates.

Howard Roark, like so many of you, passed on Happy Feet and will forever hate Robin Williams for this … as well as for Patch Adams, Man of the Hour, and Jakob the Liar. If you disagree with him, don't bother to contact him. If you agree with Howard, then he'd love to hear you sing his praises at Howard@fantasymoguls.com.