"It struck a chord in family movie-going where it's not only great romantic comedy but it had all those little special things tying back to Disney history and music, and it just played across the board," he said.

The second spot on this weekend's box-office chart went to the family reunion film "This Christmas," a Screen Gems production distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment. It also outperformed expectations by drawing $27.1 million.

Third was last week's box-office winner, the medieval battlefield epic "Beowulf," a 3-D hybrid of animation and live action that garnered $23.3 million.

It was followed in fourth place by "Hitman" at $21 million and Jerry Seinfeld's animated "Bee Movie," which finished fifth with $15.9 million. The take for "Bee Movie" pushed its four-week total to $112.1 million.

Analyst Paul Dergarabedian said that when the box office numbers become final they could represent one of Hollywood's strongest Thanksgiving weekends, giving studios a major boost at the end of the year.

"This could end up being the second- or third-biggest Thanksgiving weekend ever," said Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "This is good news for Hollywood. It was a key holiday weekend and it performed solidly."

"Beowulf" and "Bee Movie" were distributed by Paramount Pictures, which is owned by Viacom Inc.. Beowulf is being handled internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc.

"Hitman" was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.. Sony Pictures is a unit of Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp.