Dominating a fairly weak line-up this week was Denis Villeneuve's pitch black crime flick, Prisoners, picking up on the momentum it's had ever since a rousing debut in Toronto. Warner Bros. has found box office and Oscar success with other early season adult-oriented thrillers The Town and Argo, and Prisoners' $21M debut is comparable and exceeds early projections. Strong reviews seem to have trumped the restrictive R-rating, and the 'A-' Cinemascore suggests audiences took to the darker tone, and could power it to a long-lived stay in theaters. It's an obvious win not only for the studio, but for stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman who really put themselves out there in promoting the film, and look to have upped their chances of walking away with some gold.
2. Insidious Chapter 2- $14.5M/$60.85M
James Wan's Insidious Chapter 2 slipped 64% in its second week, which is pretty standard for the horror genre. It's all gravy at this point for low-budget genre champs Blumhouse Productions, who produced the film for a miniscule $5M. Get ready for a threequel, folks.
3. The Family- $7M/$25.6M
4. Instructions Not Included- $5.7M/$34.2M
The Latino-geared family comedy continues to impress, actually adding to its audience by a stunning 17%. Lionsgate have to be glowing right now, and are probably cuing up other targeted efforts in response. At this point the film is the 5th highest-grossing foreign language film in American history and doesn't seem to be slowing down.
5. Battle of the Year- $5M
Who would have thought that a dance battle film that boasts the decidedly non-dancing Josh Holloway and the repugnant Chris Brown would be one of the lowest-grossing wide releases of the year? Who could have predicted such a thing...other than everybody with half a brain? Battle of the Year opened at $5M, barely making a dent in its inexplicable $20M budget. Did they spend it all on sneakers and an extra trailer for Brown's ego? Basically this didn't even do half the opening of Step Up Revolution, which did nearly all of its damage overseas.
6. We're the Millers- $4.6M/$138.1M
7. Lee Daniels' The Butler- $4.3M/$106.4M
8. Riddick- $3.6M/$37.1M
9. The Wizard of Oz (3D/IMAX)- $3M
Warner Bros. struck gold with their 75th anniversary re-release of The Wizard of Oz, exclusively in IMAX 3D at 318 locations. It's significantly better than what Raiders of the Lost Ark and Top Gun have done in similar specialty runs over the last year.
10. Planes- $2.8M/$86.5M
