The top new domestic opener was Cloud Atlas, which earned just $9.4 million. This is a disaster no matter how slice it. Even though Warner Bros. was only on the hook for distribution and marketing, they will still probably break even at best. The sprawling Wachowksi siblings/Tom Tywker film has covered most of its $100 million budget via foreign pre-sales, but it was doomed in America. A film like Cloud Atlas (review) was always going to be a marketing challenge, even with Tom Hanks at the top of the poster. But in this current marketplace filled with high-quality adult entertainment that is both less challenging than Cloud Atlas and arguably *better* than Cloud Atlas, it was never going to be the top choice of general moviegoers. Hopefully it will do better overseas.The other three openers all tanked. Silent Hill: Revelations 3D opened with just $8 million, compared to the $20 million debut of the first Silent Hill nearly seven years ago. The film cost just $20 million so it'll probably break even for Open Road Films in the long run. This was clearly a case of an unasked-for sequel and audiences responded accordingly. The last two openers didn't register at all.
The top film was in fact Ben Affleck's Argo (review) which has become the defacto adult film of choice and the current Oscar front runner. The film earned $12.3 million in its third weekend, giving it a 17-day total of $60 million. It's still $4 million behind The Town although it once again had a bigger third weekend ($9 million for The Town). I expect it to take a hit in two weeks when Skyfall becomes the 'every grownup sees it' film, but it will have around $80 million by that time and it's still on track to top $100 million at its current pace. In other holdover news, Alex Cross dropped 56% in weekend two, which is about the norm for a Tyler Perry film. But since we're dealing with an $11 million debut instead of a normal $20-25 million opening, it's pretty ugly. The truly mediocre picture has earned just $19 million in ten days meaning it will barely gross its $25 million budget domestically.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower has now earned $11 million, or about what it could have opened to with even a halfway decent wide-release push. Pitch Perfect is an example of doing the platform thing right, and it's now at $53 million. The Bourne Legacy actually crossed $250 million worldwide, proving that sometimes Americans do have better taste when it comes to half-assed spin-offs. Looper has crossed $60 million domestic and Hotel Transylvania, with $130 million, is now Sony Animation's biggest hit ever (it still dropped only 27% this weekend). Here Comes the Boom has had surprisingly okay legs and now has $30 million. Finally Taken 2 earned another $8 million and now has $117 million. It may not quite get to the original's $145 million domestic take, but it's already well above the first film's worldwide gross and is heading towards $300 million if it's not there already.
That's it for this weekend. Join us for the unofficial start of the holiday season next frame as Robert Zemeckis's Flight faces off against Disney's Wreck It Ralph (review tomorrow) and the RZA/Russell Crowe martial arts epic The Man With the Iron Fists.