LOS ANGELES, USA (AP) — The latest Twilight movie cast the longest shadow with US$16.9 million for a third-straight No 1 finish during one of the year’s slowest weekends at the box office.

Business was dismal, with box-office tracker Hollywood.com estimating yesterday that domestic revenues totalled just US$82 million. That puts it barely ahead of Hollywood’s worst haul of the year, when revenues were US$81.5 million over the second weekend in September.

Once studios release final numbers Monday, this past weekend could come in as the worst of the year if revenues finish even lower.

The first weekend of December often presents a lull in-between big Thanksgiving releases and the onslaught of year-end blockbusters that arrive a bit later. But this big a slowdown is surprising given that there’s quality stuff out there among the top-10 films, particularly family fare such as The Muppets, Hugo and Arthur Christmas.

Hollywood executives usually blame bad weekends on a weak crop of movies.

“It’s tough to blame it on the product when the product is pretty good and the films are solid,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “While the post-Thanksgiving weekend is typically slow, it’s not usually this slow.”

The dreary weekend comes after a relatively quiet Thanksgiving holiday at movie theatres, despite analysts’ predictions of potential holiday records because of a great lineup of films.

But more fans might be thinking twice about heading out to theatres given the new entertainment options they have with Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle products and other gadgets, along with their big-screen home setups for movies and television.

Or it could be that Hollywood has temporarily neglected its mainstay audience of young males. Dergarabedian said there’s little out there now for guys looking for thrills and laughs.