Muppets, Penguins and Vampires Take a Big Bite of Movie Sales

01 December 2011

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart star in the "Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1"

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

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I’m Doug Johnson. Today, we tell about some of the major Hollywood movies, showing in theaters now, for young people.

And we play music from the most successful of those films…

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Movie Time

DOUG JOHNSON: The winter holiday movie season is here. Many production houses release their major movies in late November, around the Thanksgiving holiday. Last week was no exception. Faith Lapidus has more about the big Hollywood films playing in theaters now.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The top five films in ticket sales right now are all aimed at young movie-goers. “The Muppets” opened in second place last week. It has already made more than forty million dollars in ticket sales across the United States. That is very good, considering the movie’s budget was fifty million dollars.

The Muppets were the creation of puppeteer Jim Henson in the nineteen-fifties. They became extremely well known characters on the public television children’s show “Sesame Street.” The Muppets also had a popular television show of their own. And they made several movies before this one.