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Posted January 16, 2012 by Seth Paul in News
 
 

Weekend Box-Office: Mark Wahlberg Smuggles in a Win for Contraband

It may not be the traditional holiday weekend, with few getting time off for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as, say, Memorial Day…but for the three day take, the “one last job” crime film Contraband walked away the winner with an estimated $24.1 million. Though this is a definite drop in overall take from last week, perhaps it says something about the current crop of films that the next best film of the weekend was originally released in 1991. Disney’s re-issued Beauty and the Beast, now in 3D, beat out the rest of the pack, adding an estimated $18.5 million to a total gross that wasn’t too shabby on its initial release. Speaking of not too shabby releases, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol enjoyed another solid weekend, with an estimated $11.5 million and $186.7 million in 5 weeks, and its fellow contender Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows fared none too poorly either, with a fifth-place finish, a small drop to an estimated $8.4 million, and $170 million in domestic box office. Granted, neither film still competes with earlier films in the franchises in total domestic earnings, but with Sherlock Holmes nearing $400 million in worldwide revenue and Ghost Protocol surpassing $500 million worldwide earnings, the franchises hardly seem to be done for.

Both blockbusters had some interesting competition this weekend, putting a fourth place wedge between Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes. The Queen Latifah/Dolly Parton-led musical Joyful Noise, reportedly budgeted at $25 million, had a fairly decent opening with an estimated $11.3 million. Whether it has the staying power to stay in the Top 10 for long remains to be seen (it is receiving average reviews), but it may prove more popular than The Devil Inside, which suffered the biggest drop of all the top ten movies from last weekend to this one, earning only $7.9 million this weekend. The Devil Inside is proving horribly unpopular with critics and theatergoers alike for a variety of reasons (its ending chief among them), but with $46.2 million made domestically on a budget of $1 million, even this drop may not be enough to dissuade studios from the “found footage” genre of film.

The seventh, eight, and ninth spots go to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, and War Horse, respectively. Both Dragon Tattoo and War Horse are winning the critics over and are nearing box office success, Dragon Tattoo’s estimated $6.8 million pushing it to $88 million domestically on a $90 million budget and War Horse’s estimated $5.6 million putting it just shy of its $66 million budget. Chipwrecked, on the other hand, with its estimated $5.8 million, is doing quite well for itself with $118.8 million over a $75 million, but falling well short of its predecessors and winning no friends in the eyes of the critics. The bottom of the list lands a new face, however, with the Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady opening to wide release for its third week, earning an estimated $5.4 million. Despite the appearance of Meryl Streep as Thatcher, the movie is only garnering average reviews, but whether it clings on like The Descendants for a few weeks or drops off like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy remains to be seen.

Weekend Box-Office (January 13 – January 15)

  1. Contraband…$24.1 million
  2. Beauty and the Beast 3D…$18.5 million
  3. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol…$11.5 million
  4. Joyful Noise…$11.3 million
  5. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows…$8.4 million
  6. The Devil Inside…$7.9 million
  7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…$6.8 million
  8. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked…$5.8 million
  9. War Horse…$5.6 million
  10. The Iron Lady…$5.4 million
Seth Paul

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."