CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Sneaks Its Way to the Top

Seth Paul

This Christmas weekend almost had an unhappy ending, but an extra fourth day spelled good news for this year compared to last; an estimated $184.7 million was made this weekend, almost $70 million of it from this Monday alone (as compared to 2010, which made $20 million more in the three day weekend than this year did). Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows fell to second with an estimated $31.8 million, dipping only slightly behind its debut weekend, but Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol gained a huge boost, its wider release bringing in an estimated $46.2 million, well ahead of its IMAX theater debut. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked also dropped by a small amount, ending up in third with an estimated $20 million.

A whopping five new films debuted, be they on Wednesday to beat the Christmas rush or on Christmas Day itself. Of the Wednesday openers, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Adventures of Tintin opened to somewhat rough starts, Girl opening in fourth with an estimated $19.4 million for the four-day weekend (and $27.8 for the six day opening) and Tintin making an estimated $16.1 and $24.1 million for the same periods of time, respectively. Perhaps it was the subject matter, but the dark remake of the original film (which itself was based on a the first of a series of popular Swedish novels by the late Stieg Larsson), with a $90 million budget and little help in the foreign market currently, has a long ways to go to justify its expenses. Tintin, on the other hand, has been released overseas for quite some time now, and the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson-helmed production of the long-beloved Belgian sleuth has proven very popular overseas, with the film grossing over $239.1 million on the foreign market alone. Even if it doesn’t do well stateside, it’s likely the film will see a sequel sooner or later.

Another Spielberg helmed project, however, isn’t doing well anywhere at the moment…opening Christmas Day, War Horse opened at seventh with an estimated $15 million, behind Friday opener We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon, which earned an estimated $15.6 million. However, War Horse opened well above another Christmas Day film, The Darkest Hour, which started its run for the box office with a paltry estimated $5.5 million. The action thriller, which stars invisible monsters made of energy that disintegrate people, is also lagging behind Spielberg’s period drama in terms of critical acclaim.

Rounding out the bottom, the weekend was cruel to one film (New Year’s Eve, which dropped to an estimated $5 million), which has had a disappointing run at the box office and with critics with $34.2 million in three weeks, and kind to The Descendants (estimated $3.4 million), which comes back to the Top Ten after it had dropped off the week prior. While it is not known whether it is a success (still no budget numbers as of yet), it is only slightly below New Year’s Eve in terms of total domestic gross, and has yet to open outside the United States; New Year’s Eve, on the other hand, has had only a lukewarm foreign box office to push it limply over the finish line into profitability.

Weekend Box-Office (December 21 – December 26)

  1. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol…$46.2 million
  2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows…$31.8 million
  3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked…$20 million
  4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…$27.8 million
  5. The Adventures of Tintin…$24.1 million
  6. We Bought a Zoo…$15.6 million
  7. War Horse…$15 million
  8. The Darkest Hour…$5.5 million
  9. New Year’s Eve…$5 million
  10. The Descendants…$3.4 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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