1. Argo- $12.35/$60.78M
The incredible hold of Ben Affleck's hostage thriller continues. Argo only dropped about a quarter of its audience as it enters a third week of release.
2. Hotel Transylvania- $9.5M/$130.4M
3. Cloud Atlas- $9.4M
It's unclear if the so-called "Frankenstorm" Hurricane Sandy effected box office receipts, but as you can see from the top 3, people simply weren't going to the movies this weekend. The film that felt the greatest impact from it was Cloud Atlas, which cost somewhere north of $100M and barely registered a blip on the box office radar. Now, it should be noted that it only opened at just over 2000 theaters, small by blockbuster standards, even if over 100 of them were in IMAX. Probably most troubling for Warner Bros. and The Wachowskis is the C+ Cinemascore, which indicates audiences weren't really buying into the confusing narrative structure. I have a feeling Cloud Atlas will still bounce back, and will likely will do gangbusters on the foreign market.
4. Paranormal Activity 4- $8.6M/$42.6M
Even for a genre film such as this, a 70% drop in the second week is pretty steep. Still, this film made more than its money back after the first weekend, and globally has amassed nearly $70M. It's not going anywhere, folks, with the next film already green lit and a Latino spinoff coming in just a couple of months.
5. Silent Hill: Revelation 3D- $8M
Six years ago the original Silent Hill opened at the peak of the video game's popularity to the tune of over $20M. Now the sequel can't even register half that, with audiences giving it a 'C' Cinemascore, the lowest of all the new arrivals. This was always going to be a tough sell, as die hard fans of the game largely enjoyed the previous film while not many others did. There simply wasn't a lot of buzz for a sequel, and this pretty much assures there won't be any more.
6. Taken 2- $8M/$117.4M
7. Here Comes the Boom- $5.5M/$30.6M
8. Sinister- $5M/$39.5M
9. Alex Cross- $5M/$19.3M
So it turns out those Tyler Perry fans who decided they'd rather not see the one-note actor play action hero didn't get curious during the week. Franchise-starter Alex Cross slid 55% and looks like it may fall short of Perry's usual numbers.
10. Fun Size- $4M
The same indecisiveness that plagued Josh Schwartz's raunchy family comedy(??????) played out in the way the film was marketed, which can be summed up in two words: piss poor. Although starring Nickelodeon tween star Victoria Justice, it came tagged with a PG-13 rating and TV spots aimed at nobody in particular. And that's who turned out to see the film, nobody in particular.
Surfing drama Chasing Mavericks couldn't catch a wave, opening at a dismal $2.2M.
