The fact that Disney Animation’s latest flick debuted in the top box office spot is no surprise, but the real news this weekend belongs to ‘Skyfall’. Although the 23rd Bond title doesn’t open here until this Friday, it has already been playing in several markets for just over a week. In ten short days, its international gross has hit more than $287 million. If the movie’s domestic release follows the international trend, expect box office greatness. But enough of Bond. We’ll talk plenty about him next week. Let’s get back to Disney.
‘Wreck-It Ralph‘ opened to record-setting numbers for Disney Animation Studios. Its $49.1 million debut burst past the $48.8 million that ‘Tangled‘ opened with in 2010. Including the $12 million that ‘Ralph’ earned from six overseas markets, Disney pulled in $61.1 million this weekend. At this pace and with little in the way of upcoming family-friendly competition, ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ could easily finish beyond the $200 million mark.
Playing on half as many screens was ‘Flight‘, which earned about half as much money. On 1,884 screens, the Robert Zemeckis drama pulled in an almost identical per-screen average. Expected to make only $16.5 million this weekend, its $25 million opening is a very positive surprise for Paramount.
Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo‘ continues to draw in audiences, finishing in third place. It dropped only 15% with another $10.2 million. As of now, ‘Argo’ has earned $75.9 million.
The smallest of this weekend’s three wide releases finished in fourth place. Frankly, that’s much better than I expected. ‘The Man with Iron Fists‘ earned $8.2 million from 1,868 locations, which isn’t too shabby for a $15 million kung-fu movie.
Only one of this weekend’s three indie titles did fairly well. ‘The Bay‘ and ‘The Details‘ both fizzled, while ‘This Must Be the Place‘ simply did okay. On 23 screens, ‘The Bay’ only managed to earn $21,400, not even enough to warrant a $1,000 per-screen average. ‘The Details’ did slightly better with $20,000 on 14 screens, finishing with a $1,429 per-screen average. And ‘This Must Be the Place’ closed the two-screen opening weekend with $7,100, for a $3,550 per-screen average.
Top 10:
1. ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ (Buena Vista) – $49,100,000
2. ‘Flight’ (Paramount) – $25,010,000
3. ‘Argo’ (Warner Bros.) – $10,245,000
4. ‘The Man with the Iron Fists’ (Universal) – $8,219,000
5. ‘Taken 2’ (Fox) – $6,000,000
6. ‘Cloud Atlas’ (Warner Bros.) – $5,250,000
7. ‘Hotel Transylvania’ (Sony) – $4,500,000
8. ‘Paranormal Activity 4’ (Paramount) – $4,300,000
9. ‘Here Comes the Boom’ (Sony) – $3,600,000
10. ‘Silent Hill: Revelation’ (Original Film) – $3,300,000
