The first Friday in November marks the beginning of the holiday movie season, which runs through the week or weekend of New Year’s Day. The first movie out of the gate was “Interstellar” from Viacom Inc.’s (NASDAQ: VIAB) Paramount studio, which opened Wednesday on 249 screens and is expanding for the weekend to 3,561 screens across the United States. The other movie opening in wide release this weekend is “Big Hero 6” from Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE: DIS) Buena Vista, which hits 3,761 screens beginning Friday.

Both movies are pegged to top $50 million in receipts, according to Box Office Mojo, with the animated “Big Hero 6” expected to ring up $60 million in domestic ticket sales to $58 million for “Interstellar.”

Over the just-past Halloween weekend, “Ouija” from Comcast Corp.’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Universal Studios posted receipts of $10.74 million in its second weekend of release to beat newcomer “Nightcrawler,” which took in $10.44 million on its opening weekend.

Opening on just five screens this weekend is “The Theory of Everything,” a biopic on the life of Stephen Hawking from NBCUniversal’s Focus Features. The film is expected to garner at least $40,000 per screen and has received strong reviews and award buzz for its lead actors.

Among the theaters where “Interstellar” is playing are 370 U.S. IMAX Corp. (NYSE: IMAX) houses, making this the biggest ever IMAX release. The box office gross from the IMAX release is expected to be in the neighborhood of $12.5 million, on a par with “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Skyfall.” Internationally the film is opening on a total of 760 IMAX screens this weekend.

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