CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Continues the Impossible

Seth Paul

With two holiday weekends in a row, it’s been a good time at the theaters…maybe not as much as the studios would like, but the green has still been good to the big hits of the season. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol continues to earn top marks, with an estimated $38.3 million for the top spot once again, and in three weeks has nearly earned back its $145 million budget in domestic revenue alone. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows still refuses to say how much it cost, but unless it neared Green Lantern in terms of cost, it’s no slouch either, earning an estimated $26.5 million and a three week total of $136.5 million. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked still proved to be the family film of choice, landing in third with an estimated $21 million and $97.3 million in total gross, making it the only one of the top 3 to make a domestic profit (though still below Sherlock and Ghost Protocol in worldwide take, with Ghost Protocol earning $362.5 million.

With no newcomers on the Top 10, the rest of the pack had to compete on their merits alone, and the biggest jump came to War Horse, which debuted last week at seventh place, but moved this week up to fourth with an estimated $19.2 million. For Spielberg especially this is good news, because his other production, The Adventures of Tintin, continues to languish in the domestic market, landing seventh and making an estimated $15 million this weekend and $50.8 million in two weeks. Compare that to Tintin’s foreign release, where its has made over $260 million (much of that profit coming from France, the United Kingdom, and the fictional character’s home country of Belgium, where the character has remained very popular over the years). Fairing better than the Belgian reporter is a much darker import, David Fincher’s English language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which came in fifth with an estimated $19 million. Sandwiched in-between is Cameron Crowe’s very literally titled We Bought a Zoo, which appears to be doing average business, making an estimated $16.5 million this weekend and $50 million in total domestic sales.

At the bottom, New Year’s Eve saw a slight lift in popularity, rising to 8th with an estimated $7.7 million, though domestically hasn’t turned a profit (though worldwide gross has made it a modest success, its combined domestic and foreign totals bringing up to $92.8 million over its $56 million reported budget), while The Darkest Hour slid from an already poor debut at eighth to ninth with an estimated $5.3 million, and hasn’t really found much of an audience anywhere (not even in Russia, where the movie is set). And yet again, The Descendants clings to tenth again, with an estimated $4.3 million. Though its status on the Top 10 has come and gone a few times, and no budget data has been released, The Descendants could still be considered a prestige picture for Fox Searchlight, finding its way into the production company’s top ten highest grossing films.

Weekend Box-Office (December 30 – January 2)

  1. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol…$38.3 million
  2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows…$26.5 million
  3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked…$21 million
  4. War Horse…$19.2 million
  5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…$19 million
  6. We Bought a Zoo…$16.5 million
  7. The Adventures of Tintin…$15 million
  8. New Year’s Eve…$7.7 million
  9. The Darkest Hour…$5.3 million
  10. The Descendants…$4.3 million

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."
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