1. Zero Dark Thirty- $24M/$29.5M
There's no such thing as bad publicity, right? Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty has been awash in controversy since before a single frame had been shot, and it's only gotten worse as the film has rolled out into theaters. But while claims that it endorses torture(a silly notion in my book) continue spew forth from the talking heads, the film has been racking up awards left and right, including five Oscar nominations. And now as it expands into national release after a month in limited, it's also defeated a couple of high-profile competitors for #1. Movies about the Middle East and the war on terror tend to be a really tough sell, which extends to Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, but this goes a long way to turning that around.
2. A Haunted House- $18.8M
Nobody was expecting high cinema from A Haunted House, but these parody spoofs tend to do big business in these early months. The film was put together totally on the dime of Marlon Wayans, and this opening should guarantee him a nice return on the investment. Opening at just over 2100 theaters, it scared up the highest per site average of any film in the Top 10. Not too shabby. It'll be interesting to see if Scary Movie 5 debuts to stronger numbers in a couple of months.
3. Gangster Squad- $16.7M
Would Gangster Squad have done better if it opened in September as originally intended? Nobody can say, but it wouldn't have had the stigma of being a January movie all over it. Reviews have been mixed, to say the least, but audiences loved it according to the 'B+' CinemaScore. Still, you'd expect a cast with Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, and Emma Stone to perform much better than this.
4. Django Unchained- $11M/$125.4M
5. Les Miserables- $10.1M/$119.2M
6. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey- $9.1M/$278.1M
7. Lincoln- $6.3M/$152.6M
8. Parental Guidance- $6.1M/$60.6M
9. Texas Chainsaw 3D- $5.1M/$30.7M
Hmmmmm....we already know that all of the sequel talk was premature, but now it's REALLY premature. Last week's #1 film tumbled a crushing 76% and nearly exited the Top 10 completely. A stiff second-week dip is expected for horror movies, but this is crazy and suggests only the most die hard fans turned out to see it.
10. Silver Linings Playbook- $5M/$41.3M
Hello, Oscar bump! After earning seven Academy Award nominations a couple of days ago, Silver Linings Playbook saw a 38% jump from last week after a modest increase in theaters. After nine weeks, it finally goes into wide release next week, so don't be surprised to see it make a big move.
