Some online sites that follow weekly box office totals are announcing the three-day actual weekend estimates, while others count this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a four-day weekend, and give four-day estimates that include Monday’s prediction. In this post, I will only mention the three-day estimates since Monday can change drastically from its anticipated numbers.

After Disney’s huge success with the 3D re-release of ‘The Lion King’ last year, ‘Beauty and the Beast in 3D’ was expected to land the #1 spot this weekend. However, ‘Contraband‘ snuck up and stole the top honors. ‘Contraband’ was only expected to make $18.5 million, but finished the weekend with $24.1 million. I predict that the film’s second week will resemble that of ‘The Devil Inside‘ – a 76.6% drop-off that shifts it from first place to sixth.

Given the $30.2 million opening of ‘The Lion King’ last year, ‘Beauty and the Beast in 3D‘ was predicted to win the weekend with $19.6 million, yet only walked away in the #2 spot with $18.4 million.

The Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton vehicle ‘Joyful Noise‘ also failed to meet expectations. My guess is that most people had already seen the highly-advertised, all-too-revealing trailer a hundred times. Expected to make $12.6 million, it only pulled in $11.3 million – just enough to land in the #4 spot.

‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol‘ became the second highest-grossing film of its franchise this weekend. With $186.7 million under its belt, all ‘Ghost Protocol’ needs is another $28.7 million to pass John Woo’s ‘Mission: Impossible II’.

The expansion of ‘The Iron Lady‘ from 5 screens to 802 screens allowed the film to barely crack the Top 10 with $5.3 million. But don’t think that makes this dreadfully boring bio-pic worth watching. Just as ‘J. Edgar’ had to learn, there’s more to a good bio-pic than showing famous actors wearing goofy make-up.

As of now, not a single of last week’s indie releases has had its numbers announced.

Top 10:

1. ‘Contraband’ (Universal) – $24,100,000

2. ‘Beauty and the Beast in 3D’ (Buena Vista) – $18,490,000

3. ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ (Paramount) – $11,500,000

4. ‘Joyful Noise’ (Warner Bros.) – $11,345,000

5. ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ (Warner Bros.) – $8,410,000

6. ‘The Devil Inside’ (Paramount) – $7,900,000

7. ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ (Sony) – $6,800,000

8. ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked’ (Fox) – $5,800,000

9. ‘War Horse’ (Buena Vista) – $5,607,000

10. ‘The Iron Lady’ (Weinstein) – $5,386,000