CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: Numbers Up from Before, But the Game Isn’t Quite Afoot for Sherlock Holmes

Seth Paul

Things are picking up steam at the box office after a two-week decline, but the big end of the year blockbusters still are not performing up to expectations. Sherlock Holmes: A Games of Shadows debuted in first place, but only managed to bring in an estimated $40 million…much better than New Year’s Eve’s debut (which landed in fourth this week with an unimpressive $7.4 million estimate), but apparently short of what the sequel of the popular 2009 film should have done, considering its predecessor made $62 million in its opening weekend. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked also suffered compared to the previous entries, making an estimated $23.5 million, about half of what both previous Chipmunk films made in their opening weekends (and about as much of a loss in positive critical press as well, which wasn’t high for the first films). In third place, Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth film in the Tom Cruise series, opened in IMAX theaters for an estimated $13 million…not a bad debut for only about 400 theaters, but with veteran director Brad Bird at the helm (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) and critics raving about it, it looks ready for a big opening next Wednesday.

Very few surprises dot the rest of the list…The Sitter took fifth behind New Year’s Eve, with an estimated $4.4 million (neither film is doing well, but with a much less star-studded cast and lower budget The Sitter looks as though it has a chance to be profitable domestically). The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 dropped to only an estimated $4.3 million, but no one is crying about its $266 million domestic earnings (except maybe critics) as it slips into sixth place for the week. Hugo and Arthur Christmas continue to struggle horribly on the domestic front, both films almost neck and neck with estimated $3.6 million totals (Hugo slightly ahead), but Arthur Christmas has the advantage of Aardman Animation’s native UK to help it do well financially…Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed Hugo, however, has no such luck, with almost no success to speak of overseas. The Muppets landed in the final spot with an estimated $3.5 million and again, while not quite a runaway success, has still managed to do handsomely for itself; it managed to turn a $45 million budget into $71 million domestically.

There is one big surprise, though…seventh place goes to Young Adult, which came out of nowhere to pick up an estimated $3.7 million. Starring Charlize Theron and boasting a screenplay by Diablo Cody, it opened up to a larger (but still somewhat limited) release with over 900 theaters, and looks as if the gamble might be paying off, with a major increase in revenue from its debut week.

Weekend Box-Office (December 16 – December 18)

  1. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows…$40 million
  2. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked…$23.5 million
  3. Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol…$13 million
  4. New Year’s Eve…$7.4 million
  5. The Sitter…$4.4 million
  6. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1…$4.3 million
  7. Young Adult…$3.7 million
  8. Hugo…$3.6 million
  9. Arthur Christmas…$3.6 million
  10. The Muppets…$3.5 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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