Here’s how it looks:
What? We're number one?
1. Argo (Warner Bros) Week 3 [Runs 2,855] R
Friday $3.9M), Saturday $5.5M, Weekend $12.5M, Cume $61.0M
2. Cloud Atlas (Warner Bros) Warner Bros NEW [Runs 2,008] R
Friday $3.4M, Saturday $9.5M,
3. Hotel Transylvania (Sony Animation) Week 5 [Runs 3,276] PG
Friday $2.5M, Saturday $4.0, Weekend $9.0M, Cume $129.9M
4. Paranormal Activity 4 (Paramount) Week 2 [Runs 3,412] R
Friday $3.1M, Saturday $3.5M, Weekend $8.6M (-70%), Cume $42.5M
5. Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (Open Road) New [Runs 2,933] R
Friday $3.5M, Saturday $3.2M, Weekend $8.5M
[Numbers courtesy of Deadline]
On the one hand, it’s nice to see a high quality movie like “Argo” in the number one spot. On the other, that’s a box office take which would put you in third place on many other weekends; that $12.5 million is actually the second lowest number one finish of the year. The problem, it seems, is the massive storm approaching the east coast of the United States, which is probably keeping people away from theaters as they batten down the hatches. Or they could be just less than inspired by this week’s crop of new movies.
“Cloud Atlas,” the ambitious film from the Wachowskis and Tom Twyker, landed in second place, but with a very weak $9.5 million. It’s just hard to imagine this movie doing well. I mean, it’s nice to see a large scale, thoughtful, big budget movie directed at an adult crowd, but that’s not the hugest segment of the audience. They must have been hoping to draw in sci-fi people or something, or, well, I don’t know what they were thinking other than, “This better win an Oscar.” I find it hard to believe that prospects will improve for this one, especially with the mixed to negative reviews it has received.
The durable horror genre also didn’t do much this weekend. It seems like this was a bigger drop than you’d expect for “Paranormal Activity 4,” especially the weekend before Halloween. I never expect much from the “Silent Hill” franchise, and for once I wasn’t disappointed.
So let’s just move on from this ugly, low-performing weekend and see what’s on tap for next week. There’s “Flight,” the drama starring Denzel Washington in Robert Zemeckis’s first live action movie in years, which was really well-received when it played at the NY Film Festival. So now we’ll have two prestige pics fighting it out at the box office (I’m referring to “Argo,” as I’ve already abandoned ship on “Cloud Atlas”). Then we have the interesting action movie “The Man with the Iron Fists” from RZA, which also stars Russell Crowe as a character with a truly great name: Jack Knife. And finally, there’s the animated “Wreck-It Ralph.” So there you go, a little something for everyone.
