CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: The Devil Inside Possesses Box Office, If Not Much Else

Seth Paul

If reports are to be believed, many who bought tickets to see The Devil Inside may claim the Devil made them do it, as the film has scored poorly with critics and theatergoers alike. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop it from making a killing in its weekend debut, earning an estimated $34.5 million on a paltry $1 million budget. Things dropped off a bit for the second and third place films, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, but their popularity hasn’t tarnished by too much. Ghost Protocol picked up an estimated $20.5 million while Game of Shadows earned an estimated $14.1 million, and while Game of Shadows may not be as financially successful as its predecessor, it has still managed to earn $157.4 million domestically, and Ghost Protocol has far exceeded its $147 million budget with $170.2 million (though it, too, has yet to match up financially to the first two Mission: Impossible films).

Though it made less this week than last, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo pushed ahead of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, coming in fourth with an estimated $11.3 million, while Chipwrecked managed to get an estimated $9.5 million. While Dragon Tattoo has still yet to be profitable domestically, it has managed to earn more money worldwide than the previous Swedish version of the film; Chipwrecked, on the other hand, has proven itself profitable, but may spell the end of the franchise, having earned only half of what the previous films made.

Steven Spielberg’s War Horse fell to sixth with an estimated $8.6 million, just above We Bought a Zoo with an estimated $8.5 million, despite We Bought a Zoo just managing to break a profit on its $50 million budget while the better reviewed War Horse continues to stay afloat. Almost relying entirely on its overseas audience, however, The Adventures of Tintin remains unable to find solid footing in the U.S., with an estimated $6.6 million this week and $61.8 million domestically. The film could hardly be considered a bomb (its reportedly $135 million budget has been covered handily by $260.5 million in foreign box office), but for another Spielberg project it seems to be lacking in popularity.

Having spent four weeks in limited market, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy opened to wide release this week, garnering itself a Top 10 spot as well as an estimated $5.8 million. This beat out New Year’s Eve, which, like Tintin, isn’t doing nearly as well domestically as it is overseas, with an estimated $3.3 million in weekend box office, $52 million in domestic gross, and $80 million in foreign gross.

Weekend Box-Office (January 6 – January 8)

  1. The Devil Inside…$34.5 million
  2. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol…$20.5 million
  3. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows…$14.1 million
  4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…$11.3 million
  5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked…$9.5 million
  6. War Horse…$8.6 million
  7. We Bought a Zoo…$8.5 million
  8. The Adventures of Tintin…$6.6 million
  9. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy…$5.8 million
  10. New Year’s Eve…$3.3 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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