Recently, Vince Vaughn was ratest the best value in Hollywood–the actor with the highest box-office-to-salary ratio. Nicole Kidman was rated the worst. Those ratings were borne out this weekend as Vaughn’s “Four Christmases” opened in first place for the important Thanksgiving weekend, with a take of over $31 million dollars. “Bolt” was second, nosing out “Twilight” (which has earned more than $119 million in ten days).

Vaughn, who has proven to be a sound investment with such hits as “Wedding Crashers” and “Fred Claus,” returns to the holiday feed trough in “Four Christmases,” a splintered-family farce that teams him with Reese Witherspoon, who was recently named Hollywood’s most likable commodity.

“Four Chritmases” helped push the overall box-office figure for the Thanksgiving weekend to the second-highest total ever. 

The epic romance “Australia” has earned about $20 million since its Wednesday opening, suggesting that Kidman has at least partially regained her legs after stumbles such as “The Invasion,” ”Bewitched” and “The Stepford Wives.” But the reviews for the over-long film have been mixed, and notwithstanding raves from Roger ebert, the New York Times and yours truly, it will probably ride off into the sunset without any attention from the Academy.

Not so for “Milk,” which is playing at just 36 theaters but earned an astounding $1.4 million since Wednesday. Look for it to expand to suburban multiplexes as word spreads about Sean Penn’s Oscar-worthy performance in the title role as the late gay-rights icon.

The complete box office story is here.