This Weekend @ The Boxoffice: 2012_Jan.09

Weekend Report: Moviegoers Possessed By 'Devil Inside'
by Ray Subers -- January 8, 2012

The Devil Inside crushed even the most generous forecasts this weekend and easily claimed first place ahead of fellow Paramount release Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Its impressive debut combined with strong holdover performances resulted in an estimated $128.2 million Top 12 gross, which is up a whopping 30 percent from the same weekend last year (though it's off 14 percent from the same frame in 2010).

Produced for less than $1 million and distributed by Paramount's Insurge label, The Devil Inside scared up an estimated $34.5 million from 2,285 locations. That's the third-highest January opening ever behind Cloverfield ($40.1 million) and the Star Wars (Special Edition) re-release ($35.9 million). It was also the fifth-best debut ever for a supernatural horror movie behind the last two Paranormal Activity movies, The Grudge and The Ring Two.

The only noteworthy drawback of The Devil Inside's opening was that it was incredibly front-loaded (it made 49 percent of its tally on Friday), though that's pretty standard for the genre. Paramount is reporting that the audience was 59 percent under the age of 25 and 54 percent male, and its CinemaScore leaned more "F" (19 percent) than "A" (16 percent).

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol dropped down to second place after leading the box office for the past few weeks. The movie eased just 30 percent to an estimated $20.5 million, and it has now made an impressive $170.2 million. By early next weekend, the fourth installment in the popular franchise will have passed the original movie's $181 million total, and it's beginning to look like it has a chance at topping Mission: Impossible II's $215.4 million to become the highest-grossing entry in the series.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows also held well this weekend: the sequel was off 33 percent to an estimated $14.1 million, and has so far made $157.4 million. It has closed the gap with the first Sherlock Holmes to less than $23 million, though it's appearing less likely that the movie will ultimately close over $200 million.

Dipping just 24 percent to an estimated $11.3 million, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had the best hold among all nationwide releases this weekend. The movie has now earned $76.8 million, and a Sony spokesperson indicated that they believe the movie is on pace to ultimately wind up with over $100 million.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked fell 42 percent to an estimated $9.5 million, which was good for fifth place this weekend. The movie passed $100 million on Wednesday, and has so far grossed $111.6 million.

War Horse and We Bought a Zoo had nearly identical results this weekend. War Horse added $8.6 million for a $56.8 million total, while We Bought a Zoo was just behind with $8.45 million and $56.5 million gross-to-date.

The Adventures of Tintin fell 42 percent to $6.6 million this weekend. The Steven Spielberg-directed animated adventure has now made $61.9 million. That's okay given the movie's impressive overseas haul, though it does show pretty conclusively that domestic audiences never really bought in to the movie in the way one would expect given that it was directed by Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy expanded to 809 locations this weekend and earned a solid $5.77 million. It had the second-best per-theater average among wide releases ($7,129) behind The Devil Inside, and should add substantially to its $10.4 million total through the remainder of the awards season.

Click to expand...

Hand of Evil said:

Devil Inside was not even on my radar...

Click to expand...