Two horror movie trends came together to help get the 2012 box office season off to a good start as Paramount’s The Devil Inside earned an estimated $34.5 million, the third best January opening ever, trailing just Cloverfield ($40.1 million) and the Star Wars re-release ($35.9 million). The Devil Inside benefited from two horror movie trends, one narrative, the revival in interest in demonic possession sagas that began with the 2005 success of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and one technical, the use of faux “found footage” to provide a thin veneer of believability to the cinematic proceedings.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): January 6 - 8, 2012 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | The Devil Inside | $34,500,000 | 2,285 | $15,098 | $34,500,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol | $20,500,000 | 3,555 | $5,767 | $170,201,000 | 4 |
| 3 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | $14,055,000 | 3,603 | $3,901 | $157,415,000 | 4 |
| 4 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | $11,300,000 | 2,950 | $3,831 | $76,836,000 | 3 |
| 5 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | $9,500,000 | 3,425 | $2,774 | $111,588,000 | 4 |
| 6 | War Horse | $8,603,000 | 2,783 | $3,091 | $56,828,000 | 3 |
| 7 | We Bought a Zoo | $8,450,000 | 3,170 | $2,666 | $56,544,000 | 3 |
| 8 | The Adventures of Tintin | $6,600,000 | 3,006 | $2,196 | $61,880,000 | 3 |
| 9 | Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy | $5,767,000 | 809 | $7,129 | $10,418,000 | 5 |
| 10 | New Year's Eve | $3,265,000 | 1,864 | $1,752 | $52,026,000 | 5 |
The cost of The Devil Inside, which was made for less than $1 million, demonstrates the major strength of “found footage” horror movies, which don’t have to do much business to turn a profit. Paramount is the studio that has benefited the most from this trend with its three Paranormal Activity movies, which collectively cost under $8 million to produce and have brought in nearly $300 million. It is also clear now that Paramount really knows how to promote these found footage horror movies to their youthful target audiences via innovative Internet marketing campaigns.
Horror films do tend to attract younger audiences who flock to theaters on opening weekends, which makes the genre very “front-loaded” as grosses tend to diminish quickly in subsequent weeks. This effect is likely to be especially pronounced with The Devil Inside, which earned a highly disappointing “F” CinemaScore from audiences.
The clear hit of the holiday season, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, came in a solid #2 with an estimated $20.5 million, which brings its total to $170.2 million. The Tom Cruise action hit should easily make it over $200 million. With this one film, which was directed by Pixar veteran Brad Bird, Cruise has clearly re-established both his own career and a potent action movie franchise.
Another franchise that appears to be in good shape is Guy Ritchie’s revamped Sherlock Holmes films starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. After a shaky start, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows has steadily clawed its way back toward the kind of success that the first film in the series enjoyed. Currently the #3 film at the box office, it has earned $157.4 million, which puts it now just $22 million behind the first Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movie.
Also in good shape is the kid-friendly Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked fell 42% as it earned $9.5 million and brought its total to $111.6 million. While not the titanic hits of previous films in the series, Chipwrecked will still make enough money to insure a sequel.
David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo experienced the smallest drop in the top ten, falling just 24% and finishing in fourth place with an estimated $11.3 million. With $76.8 million already in the bank, Dragon Tattoo appears to be a lock to earn over $100 million, and with solid grosses overseas, this expensive franchise will likely be extended to include an American version of the second book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire.
The jury is still out on the success of several other holiday releases. Fox’s family film, We Bought a Zoo, which cost $100 million to make, has earned $56.6 million so far, while Stephen Spielberg’s War Horse has brought in $56.8 million at this point. Spielberg’s Adventures of Tintin finished in the eighth spot and brought its domestic total to $61.9 million, and looks to finish somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 million.
Stop back next week to see if Donnie Wahlberg’s action-thriller Contraband can duplicate the success of Q1 action hits such as Taken (2008) and Unknown (2011).
