UPDATE: According to the just-released updated numbers, Dragon Tattoo beat Chipmunks by $100K. Still too close to call.
There were three new releases over the Christmas holiday, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Tintin, and We Bought a Zoo, and all three got out-earned by last week’s top three, Mission Impossible IV, Sherlock Holmes 2, and Alvin and the Chipmunks 3. Dragon Tattoo earned an estimated $13 million for the weekend, which isn’t terrible — BoxOfficeMojo compares it to True Grit‘s $16 million on the same weekend last year — but was still below expectations.
Now, there are a few ways to read this. Obviously, one is that it’s a precursor to locusts and zombies on horseback as a harbinger of the apocalypse. Another way to read it is as a validation of Mission Impossible‘s platform-release strategy, where it came out in IMAX a week early, and by Christmas time, everyone had heard of it (I get the sense people just didn’t know some of these movies were out yet). And of course, there’s always the possibility that people were with their families on Christmas, and didn’t want to drag grandma to a film featuring graphic rape and gratuitous merkins. Not me though. My grandma practically invented the merkin. She even weaved one for the German Chancellor, Angela Merkin.
| This week |
Last Week |
Title |
Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | ||
| 1 | 3 | Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | $29,500,000 | +130.7% | 3,448 | +3,023 | $8,556 | $61,935,000 | $145 | 2 | |
| 2 | 1 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | $20,260,000 | -48.9% | 3,703 | – | $5,471 | $79,014,000 | – | 2 | |
| 3 | N | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) | $12,750,000 | – | 2,914 | – | $4,375 | $21,126,000 | $90 | 1 | |
| 4 | 2 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | $12,650,000 | -45.6% | 3,734 | +11 | $3,388 | $49,590,000 | $75 | 2 | |
| 5 | N | The Adventures of Tintin | $9,705,000 | – | 3,087 | – | $3,144 | $17,712,000 | – | 1 | |
| 6 | N | We Bought a Zoo | $9,450,000 | – | 3,117 | – | $3,032 | $9,450,000 | – | 1 | |
| 7 | N | War Horse | $7,512,000 | – | 2,376 | – | $3,162 | $7,512,000 | – | 1 | |
| 8 | 4 | New Year’s Eve | $3,315,000 | -54.7% | 2,225 | -1,280 | $1,490 | $32,652,000 | $56 | 3 | |
| 9 | N | The Darkest Hour | $3,000,000 | – | 2,324 | – | $1,291 | $3,000,000 | $30 | 1 | |
| 10 | 9 | The Muppets | $2,147,000 | -39.0% | 1,536 | -1,272 | $1,398 | $75,704,000 | $45 | 5 | |
via BoxOfficeMojo