The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day once again proved to be one of the busiest times at the box office, helping to make up for a down year with many of the new movies grossing between three and four times their Christmas opening weekend.
With no new wide releases over the New Year’s Eve/Day weekend, Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Paramount), directed by Brad Bird, won the weekend with ease, bringing in another estimated $31.2 million to take its box office total to $134.1 million, which surpasses the domestic gross for Mission: Impossible III. Internationally, the film has earned $190.8 million for a worldwide total of $324.9 million so far.
Taking second place, Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Warner Bros.), starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, added another $22.1 million to its domestic take, bringing its three-week total to just behind Mission: Impossible with $132.1 million.
Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunks – Chipwrecked took third place with $18.2 million bringing its own total to $94.6 million.
Steven Spielberg’s War Horse (DreamWorks) grossed just under $17 million in its second weekend–its first full three-day weekend after opening on Christmas Day–to take fourth place with a total of $43 million.
David Fincher’s adaptation of the bestselling novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sony) is estimated to earn $16.3 million this weekend, up 28% from its opening frame, having grossed $57.1 million after 12 days in theaters.
The Cameron Crowe-Matt Damon family drama We Bought a Zoo (20th Century Fox) was up nearly 50% from last weekend with a second weekend gross of $14.3 million and roughly $42 million grossed to date.
Although it’s been doing decent business during the week, Spielberg’s animated The Adventures of Tintin (Paramount) dropped two spots this weekend, grossing $12 million over the three-day weekend to bring its total to $47.8 million.
With a bump from the actual holiday it referenced, Gary Marshall’s rom-com anthology New Year’s Eve (New Line/WB) was up over 103% from Christmas weekend, taking 8th place with $6.7 million and $46.4 million total.
Retaining ninth place, the alien invasion thriller The Darkest Hour (Summit Entertainment) brought in $4.3 million in its second weekend for a eight-day total of $13.3 million.
A few limited releases opened on Friday in New York and Los Angeles with the Meryl Streep/Margaret Thatcher drama The Iron Lady (The Weinstein Co.) bringing in the most business, grossing an estimated $221 thousand in four theaters, an impressive per-site average of $55 thousand per location.
The critically-acclaimed Iranian drama A Separation (Sony Pictures Classics) opened in three theaters to gross $66.6 thousand, while Dee Rees’ Sundance favorite Pariah (Focus Features), which opened on Wednesday in four theaters, wound up with $46.7 thousand for the weekend.
Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.
