By Sarah Sluis
During the week after Thanksgiving, the box office usually takes a dip. This week sees just one new wide release and a tempting heap of leftovers.
The kung-fu western Warrior's Way (1,622 theatres) has all the makings of a flop: a $42 million production budget against a projected $5 million gross, and no advance reviews--a bad sign. The film centers on an Asian warrior who uproots himself and moves to the American badlands. The Korean star Jang Dong Dun toplines alongside Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush, but this East-West hybrid shows little sign of catching on.
The returning films Tangled and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I shouldgrab the two top spots for a second week. Harry Potter has been slightly ahead of Tangled during this week's box office race, but Tangled's family-friendly appeal may put it in first place, especially since many Potter fans insisted on seeing the film opening weekend.
Director Darren Aronofsky's follow-up to The Wrestler, Black Swan (18 theatres), features Natalie 
Portman as a dancer undergoing a similar brutalization of the body as she's pushed to her psychological limit during a production of Swan Lake. Critic David Noh called the drama "more horror than ballet film." For a self-proclaimed lover of dance films, the "cheap" choreography and star Natalie Portman's hard-to-watch transformation results in "an over-the-top mess whose mounting absurdity and violence become a thorough audience punishment." This very brutalization has Oscar prognosticators betting that Portman will receive a nomination for the tough role.
The much-delayed I Love You, Phillip Morris (6 theatres) finally opens in theatres. Jim Carrey stars as a gay con man in love, "his bravest performance yet," according to Noh. All Good Things (2 theatres) based on the true story of a real estate tycoon who probably murdered his wife, stars Ryan 
Gosling and Kirsten Dunst and received critic Doris Toumarkine's approval: she called it a "terrific fact-based drama." Rounding out the bunch of specialty releases, the period drama Night Catches Us (4 theatres) stars Anthony Mackie as a former Black Panther suspected of talking to the cops. When he returns to Philadelphia, he sparks a romance with an old friend (Kerry Washington).
On Monday, we'll circle back to see if audiences found room for more films in the post-Thanksgiving pile of leftovers and tantalizing new indies.
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