(Bloomberg) — Warner Bros.’ “Happy Feet” was the top-grossing film for a second consecutive weekend during the lucrative Thanksgiving holiday, with box-office sales of $37.9 million.The movie, about animated dancing penguins, beat “Casino Royale,” the new James Bond film, which finished second with $31 million in US and Canadian theatres, box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. said yesterday in a statement.

Both films, released last weekend, built momentum that held off competition from “Déj|0xe0| Vu,” a science-fiction movie starring Denzel Washington that opened this weekend in third with $20.8 million, Exhibitor Relations President Paul Dergarabedian said in an interview.

“The strategy of opening `Happy Feet’ and `Casino Royale’ the weekend before Thanksgiving paid off,” Dergarabedian said. “It positioned the films so well. A few years ago the studios might have opened them on Thanksgiving Day weekend. Now they open the weekend before to build buzz.”

In nature, king penguins attract their lifelong mates through song. In “Happy Feet,” a young penguin who can’t sing learns to dance. Besides the song-and-dance numbers, the film shows the effects of overfishing and pollution on the penguin population.

The movie cost $85 million to make, according to Internet Movie Database Inc. Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. showed the film in 3,804 theatres this weekend. A survey of critics by RottenTomatoes.com yielded a 79 percent approval rating, identifying 88 positive reviews out of 111.

“Casino Royale,” which introduces Daniel Craig as the sixth actor to play James Bond, recounts the spy’s first mission after receiving his “007” status. The secret agent for Britain’s MI6 intelligence service has to prevent a banker from winning a poker tournament and using the prize money to fund international terrorist groups.

The movie, the 21st in the Bond franchise, cost $150 million to make, according to Internet Movie Database. Sony Corp.’s Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. co-distributed the film, which appeared in 3,443 theatres this weekend, according BoxOfficeGuru.com.

“The strength of `Happy Feet’ and `Casino Royale’ was bolstered by good word of mouth, which is making them formidable competition in the marketplace,” Dergarabedian said. “If both were terrible movies, we’d see huge drops at the box office. But both are great films and holding up very well.”

In Walt Disney Co.’s “Déj|0xe0| Vu,” Washington plays an FBI agent who uses new technology to see into the past to prevent a New Orleans ferry bombing. The movie, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, cost $80 million to make, according to Internet Movie Database.

“Deck the Halls,” released by News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox and starring Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick as neighbours competing to have the best Christmas decorations, debuted in fourth place with $12 million.

In fifth place, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” broke the $100 million barrier this weekend, selling $10.4 million in tickets at 2,552 locations. The movie, whose full title is “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” has taken in $109.3 million for Fox.

Sixth-place “Santa Clause 3” took in $10 million for Disney over the weekend, falling from fourth. Tim Allen reprises his role as Santa, who this time must fend off an attempt by Jack Frost to take over Christmas. Martin Short plays Frost.

Sony’s “Stranger Than Fiction” was seventh with $6 million; Viacom Inc. unit Paramount’s “Flushed Away” was eighth with $5.8 million; MGM expanded “Bobby,” about the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, to 1,667 theatres last weekend. The movie, written by Emilio Estevez and starring Laurence Fishburne and William H. Macy, came in ninth place with $4.9 million; and Warner Bros.’ debut “The Fountain,” starring Hugh Jackman trying to save the woman he loves, was 10th with $3.7 million.