It was a close game at yesterday’s Super Bowl and it was a close battle at the box office between Chronicle and The Woman in Black, which featured two things teenagers love, found footage and PG-13 horror, respectively.  Chronicle had the best reviews and took the win by $2 million, making just over $22 million and, by the nature of the found footage genre, has already $10 million in profit.  The Woman in Black was one of the better, teen targeted, horror openings and the best opening for CBS films with just over $20 million.  The Grey had a pretty steep drop off from it’s number one weekend last week but still managed $9.3 million and brought it’s total to $34.5 million.  Big Miracle gambled that women would head out to theaters while the men of their lives watched the big game but that gamble blew up in their faces with a middling $7.8 million opening weekend.  It was a much worse opening also compared to the other recent “humans help sea mammal” movie, Dolphin Tale.  Underworld 4 rounded out the top 5.  Everything else pretty much just moved down one or two spots to accommodate the newcomers with the biggest drops going to Man on a Ledge and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but dropping four spots from the previous week.  It’s a jam packed weekend this coming Friday with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Phantom Menace 3D, Safe House and The Vow all coming out so it’s anyone’s guess what will take the number one spot.

Liam Neeson continues his domination of the early parts of the year by having another number one action movie in The Grey this weekend, following on previous number ones Taken and Unknown.  The Grey took in a solid $19.6 million, a little bit under those other Neeson action flicks but they both also came from bigger studios.  Underworld: Awakening fell by 51% from it’s number one weekend last week but still took second place with another $12.4 million.  One for the Money performed above expectations, which granted were extremely low, with a gross of $11.5 million.  It probably got a boost from it’s Groupon promotion where you could get a ticket for $6.  Red Tails and Man on a Ledge rounded out the top 5 with Man on a Ledge having a pretty terrible opening, getting beat by previous Sam Worthington movie The Debt, which made $9.9 million it’s opening weekend.  In other box office news, The Descendants returned to over 1,000 theaters over the weekend and rocketed back into the top ten, going from 16th last week to eighth this week.  Going in the opposite direction, Haywire and Contraband both fell drastically from previous weeks with the former barely staying in the top ten.

There are apparently two truths in Hollywood; people love watching Milla Jovovich fight zombies and they love watching Kate Beckinsale fight werewolves.  Just like Resident Evil, Underworld is somehow still making money and getting movies in the franchise and the latest, Awakening, was the top movie at the box office this weekend, making $25.3 million, up from the last entry, Rise of the Lycans, but a little under the last Beckinsale starring movie, Evolution.  Second place went to Red Tails, George Lucas’ tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen.  The movie made $18.8 million.  Last week’s number one, Contraband, dropped down to third with $12 million and putting it’s total to over $45 million and putting it past other recent Wahlberg joints like Shooter and Max Payne.  Getting a massive boost from it’s wide release was the divisive Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which went from 36th place last week to fourth this week with $10 million.  Beauty and the Beast 3D isn’t doing nearly as well as The Lion King re-release, dropping to fifth place from second and making another $8.8 million.  It’s all basically profit at this point but Beast probably won’t get the extended stay that the Lion King got.  The other new release, Haywire, had a pretty disappointing opening weekend with sixth place and a little over $8 million.  As far as Steven Soderbergh movies go, Haywire is definitely on the low end, only beating Solaris and his weird limited release movies.

Contraband seemingly continued the January tradition of solid action movies by bringing in $24.1 million and winning the weekend.  It was one of the better Mark Wahlberg openings and was one of the best January action openings, only getting beaten by Taken.  It didn’t have as crazy an opening as the re-release of The Lion King but, minus whatever costs it takes to convert the movie to 3D, it’s still basically all profit and $18.2 million is pretty solid for a 20+ year old movie.  Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol moved down another slot down to third with $11.5 million.  Joyful Noise took the fourth place spot with $11.3 million which was an OK opening and better than last year’s January music movie, Country Strong, although that movie’s downer tone probably didn’t help.  Sherlock Holmes 2 rounded out the top 5.  Fans of schadenfreude were eagerly anticipating the certain massive drop off of The Devil Inside after it’s toxic word of mouth last weekend and it didn’t disappoint, dropping almost 77% from last weekend and plummeting to sixth place.  It’s the 19th biggest drop off ever but it still made 46x it’s budget so, unfortunately, expect more shitty found footage horror movies in the future.  The only other big movement was from The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep, which went wide over the weekend and took tenth place with $5.4 million.

Being the only new release movie of the weekend certainly helped The Devil Inside, along with how stupidly herd like people are to these found footage horror movies.  The Devil Inside made a healthy $34 million, 34x it’s budget of $1 million but most of it was on Friday and it’s word of mouth is absolutely horrendous (there’s wide spread reports of the entire audience booing at the end of the movie) so if it’s in the top 5 next weekend, I’ll be shocked.  Second place went to the still solid Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which made another $19.8 million and just over $169 million in total.  Sherlock Holmes 2 moved down a slot to third place with $13.7 million while The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo stayed in fourth with $11.4 million.  Alvin and the Chipmunks rounded out the top 5 with $9.5 million.  The only other big mover was Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy finally went wide over the weekend and went from 17th to 9th with $5.5 million.  There’s three new movies out this weekend, including the re-release of Beauty and the Beast, which could be as massive as Lion King was this past fall.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol maintained it’s spot at the top of the box office results, making another $29.5 million over the weekend and bringing it up to just over $132 million in total.  Sherlock Holmes was a pretty close second with another $21 million while Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked moved past The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for third with $16.3 million (Dragon Tattoo made $14.8).  Also flip flopping were War Horse and Tintin at fifth and seventh.  War Horse had a massive bump over the weekend (and actually having a full weekend to make money) and made $14.4 million.  New Year’s Eve had an expected boost from this weekend actually being New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day staying in eighth with $6.4 million but nowhere near where Valentine’s Day was around the same time in theaters.  The only big mover was The Descendants, which came back into the top ten at tenth after being thirteenth last week.  Mission Impossible should stay at the top for at least this week as the only new movie is the mediocre looking The Devil Inside.

One of the most crowded Christmas weekends for movies I can remember, where no less than seven new movies battled it out on various days but ultimately the IMF team led by Ethan Hunt came out on top as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol won the box office.  MI4 made $29.5 million over the weekend and $61.9 million in total.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows dropped down to second with another $20 million.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came in third with $12.7 million over the weekend and $21 million in total.  Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked  moved down to $12.6 million and fourth place and The Adventures of TinTin rounded out the top 5 with $9.7 million and $17.7 million in total.  We Bought a Zoo, which had a traditional Friday release, only managed $9.5 million and sixth place.  In it’s one day of release, War Horse had an opening of $7.5 million, pretty good for one day and most theaters were probably only open for half of Christmas Day.  The other Christmas release, The Darkest Hour, had a mediocre $3 million one day opening and took ninth place.  Even with a full weekend next weekend, I doubt it will go much higher, and word of mouth is awful.

The holiday movie bonanza got off to a slightly disappointing start as Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows won the box office, but made only around half as much as it’s predecessor’s opening weekend.  Sherlock made $39.6 million while the first movie made $62.3 million.  Also well below it’s predecessor’s was Alvin and the Chimpmunks: Chipwrecked, which made $23.2 million for second place.  The first Alvin made $44.3 million and The Squeakquel made $48.9.  On the other hand, doing incredibly well with just IMAX and select theaters (425 theaters in total), Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol took third place with $12.8 million, which bodes well for it’s wide release on Wednesday despite the incredibly packed coming weekend.  New Year’s Eve and The Sitter rounded out the top 5.  In other news, Young Adult went into wide release over the weekend and managed to get in at number ten with $3.4 million while, unexpectedly, The Descendants actually fell off of the top ten after being in seventh last week, coming in at eleventh with $3.3 million.  It’s pretty much impossible to predict what is going to happen to the box office this coming weekend as there is SEVEN new releases between now and next Sunday but I would back Mission Impossible taking the top spot.

Not suprisingly, considering what was released, this past weekend was the slowest box office weekend in three years.  New Year’s Eve “won” the weekend and was the only movie to make over $10 million, just barely, with $13 million.  It’s predecessor, Valentine’s Day, made over $56 million it’s first weekend, so hopefully this means the horrible holiday themed romantic comedies will stop.  Second place went to the other new release, The Sitter, which eked out just $9.8 million and was the lowest opening for Jonah Hill and is the second comedy flop of the year for director David Gordon Green, who directed Your Highness earlier this year.  Twilight, The Muppets and Arthur Christmas rounded out the top 5.  The Descendants keeps gaining theaters and held solid at seventh place.  This weekend has the first couple of holiday heavy hitters so expect New Year’s Eve to be handily defeated by either Sherlock Holmes or Chipmunks (probably both).

With no new releases this weekend in theaters, Breaking Dawn Part 1 maintained it’s number one spot at the box office.  The latest in the Twilight series made another $16.5 million, bringing it’s total up to $247 million.  Muppets maintained it’s spot in second place spot with $11 million while Happy Feet 2 and Hugo literally flip flopped the third and fifth spot, with Hugo getting an extra 563 theaters over the past weekend and making $7.5 million while Happy Feet 2 made $5.9 million.  Arthur Christmas stayed in fourth place with $7.4 million.  Steadily moving up the top ten is The Descendants, which is expanding ever wider and moved up from ninth to seventh place over the weekend with $4.8 million.  Other than that, everything else pretty much stayed in the same spot.  There’s nothing that would give Twilight to much competition this weekend but maybe since it will be the fourth weekend for it, it might finally drop from the top spot.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 remained at the top of the box office over the holiday weekend, despite a 69% drop off from the previous weekend.  For the weekend, Twilight made another $41.7 million, bringing it’s total gross to over $220 million. In actually good new, The Muppets had a triumphant return to theaters as they had a strong second place debut with $29.2 million.  Adjusting for inflation, only the original The Muppet Movie beats this new entry in terms of box office.  Happy Feet Two moved down to third place with $13.4 million while the two other new releases, Arthur Christmas and Hugo rounded out the top five.  Arthur Christmas, with it’s $12 million opening was actually the lowest for Aardman Animation, even lower than the completely forgotten Flushed Away but analysts think that it’s specific tie in to Christmas should make it have a steady gross week to week.  Hugo was actually the third highest opening for Martin Scorsese, behind The Departed and Shutter Island, with $11 million.  Everything else slid down a number of spots to accommodate the new releases with Tower Heist falling the farthest from sixth to barely tenth.  The other mover was George Clooney’s The Descendants, which gained some more theaters and moved up to ninth with $7.3 million.  There’s no wide release movies this coming weekend so Twilight will probably remain on top for at least one more week.

I don’t think anyone is shocked that Twilight: Breaking Dawn was the number one movie at the box office this weekend.  The latest assault on good taste by the franchise had the fifth highest opening weekend of all time with $139.5 million and the second highest opening for the series, getting beaten by New Moon.  Half of the movie’s total gross was on Friday.  In a ridiculously distant second was Happy Feet Two with $21 million, barely half of what the original Happy Feet made in it’s opening weekend.  Immortals took a big hit and dropped down to third with $12.4 million.  Jack and Jill and Puss in Boots rounded out the top 5.  The only other news was that George Clooney’s new movie, The Descendants managed to crack the top ten, even though it only debuted in 29 theaters.  Three new movies are out on Wednesday this week but can any of them top Twilight?

Surprising myself and probably most people who write about the weekend box office, Adam Sandler’s latest assault on comedy, Jack & Jill, was soundly defeated by Immortals.  Immortals, while not as strong a debut as similar titles like 300 and Clash of the Titans, was still the second strongest opening for an R rated 3D film and the best opening for smaller studio Relativity Media.  Jack & Jill came in second place with $25 million, the second lowest opening for Adam Sandler, only topping Funny People and just barely beating Puss in Boots in it’s third week.  Hopefully this means that America has come to it’s senses and realized that Sandler movies are the equivalent of sniffing glue, you’re just killing brain cells.    Puss in Boots took third with $24 million while Tower Heist moved down to fourth with $12.7 million.  Other newcomer, J. Edgar, took the fifth place spot with $11.2 million and was playing in less theaters than it’s competition.  Not much else to report on besides the fact that Paranormal 3 is quickly falling of the charts in the post Halloween weeks.  I don’t think anyone would bet against Twilight: Breaking Dawn destroying the box office this weekend and we’ll have to see how the rest of the movies weather the tween storm.

Puss in Boots managed to hold off both of this past weekend’s new challengers with a mere 3% drop from last week, earning another $33 million.  Of the two new movies, Tower Heist managed to outdo Harold & Kumar with the former making $24 million to the latter’s $12 million.  Tower Heist was on the low end of openings for both Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy and Harold & Kumar was below it’s predecessor’s opening weekend by $2 million.  Paranormal Activity 3 and In Time rounded out the top 5.   Everything else basically moved down one or two places to accommodate the newcomers.  If history is any indication, expect Jack & Jill to, unfortunately, be the number one movie this upcoming weekend.

Despite it being Halloween weekend, Paranormal Activity 3 lost to Shrek spin off Puss in Boots.  Puss made $34 million to take the top spot, which is low compared to last year’s fall Dreamworks movie, Megamind and also on the low end of the Shrek franchise.  Paranormal 3 took a 65% drop from last weekend and made another $18.1 million, but since it only cost $5 million to make and has grossed $80+ million, future installments are pretty much guaranteed.  One of the other new releases, In Time, took the third place spot with an OK opening of $12 million while Footloose dropped down to fourth with another $5.5 million.  Surprisingly low for a Johnny Depp movie, The Rum Diary made just over $5 million and rounded out the top 5.  The guarantee of weirdness from the trailer might have scared people.   Real Steel finally fell out of the top 5, moving from second to sixth while The Three Musketeers begins it’s rapid fall off the top ten, going from fourth to seventh.  Nothing else had too drastic of a move.

Surprising absolutely no one, the latest Paranormal Activity movie completely dominated the box office with a total weekend opening of just over $54 million, up $14 million from PA2′s opening last October.  It’s the highest ever opening for the September/October period as well, a title previously held by Jackass 3D.  Second place went to Real Steel, which made another $11.3 million while third went to Footloose with $10.9 million.  One of the other new release, The Three Musketeers, took the fourth place spot with a middling $8.8 million, which is a worse opening than the last Musketeers related film, 2001′s The Musketeer, which made a little over $10 million. The Ides of March rounded out the top 5.  In other box office news, the rest of the world apparently loves Johnny English Reborn but America could care less as the second movie in the series only made $3.3 million over the weekend.  The only other big movement was from The Thing, which absolutely nosedived, going from third place last weekend to ninth place this weekend, probably because Paranormal Activity stole all the horror fans.  It’s a tough call this weekend whether PA3 will stay on top because it is Halloween weekend but there are some potentially strong competition like Puss in Boots and the Johnny Depp starring The Rum Diaries.

Real Steel managed to hold off the competition this weekend and earned another $16.3 million, putting it’s total to just under $52 million.  Close behind was the remake of Footloose with $15.5 million, which is an average opening for the dance genre (which includes the likes of the Step Up series).  A distant third was the prequel to the 80′s classic, The Thing.  All accounts say that it feels more like a lackluster remake and it made $8.5 million, worse than other horror remakes like The Stepfather and The Fog.  Box Office Mojo reports that this new thing, in fact, sold about as many tickets as it’s ’82 predecessor did in it’s opening weekend.  This new Thing will probably not turn into a beloved cult classic like the original.  Courageous had the same MO as it’s predecessor, Fireproof, hitting hard the first weekend and then quickly fading.  It only made $3.3 million and dropped from sixth to eighth.  Expect it to drop off the top ten maybe as early as next weekend.  Courageous still managed to defeat the other new release for the weekend, The Big Year, which opened at an abysmal ninth place with $3.2 million.  Easily the lowest opening for each of it’s stars (Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, Jack Black), apparently no one wanted to see a comedy about bird watching.   The heavy hitter this weekend is Paranormal Activity 3.  The PA franchise has taken over from the Saw series as the king of the Halloween box office and, considering the competition, I expect PA3 to easily be number one this coming weekend.

Real Steel managed to “knock out” the competition at the box office this weekend, making $27.3 million.  If you consider it a boxing movie, than it had the highest opening ever for one, topping Rocky IV and it had the second highest sports drama opening, getting beat by The Blind Side’s opening.  Second place went to the other new release, The Ides of March.  It had an opening weekend of $10.5 million, a bit ahead of similar George Clooney movie Michael Clayton’s opening and a little less than Ryan Gosling’s Drive’s opening weekend.  Dolphin Tale and Moneyball, last week’s number one and two, moved down to third and fourth and 50/50 remained in fifth place.    The only major movement was The Lion King 3D, which dropped from third last week to seventh, probably because of it’s new release on Blu Ray.  Three more movies opening this weekend including the prequel to The Thing and the remake of Footloose.

The Lion King finally faltered in it’s extended re-release, leaving the door open for last week’s number three  to move up.  Dolphin Tale capitalized the most and took the number one spot with $14 million while Moneyball stayed in second with another $12 million.  The Lion King dropped down to $10.6 million and third place.  Following in the footsteps of it’s predecessor, Fireproof, the Christian themed Courageous took the fourth place spot with $9 million, better than Fireproof’s $6.8 million.  New release 50/50 rounded out the top 5 with $8.6 million, which is the lowest opening for a Seth Rogen movie.  Dream House came in at a mediocre sixth place with $8.1 million less than half of what similar movies like The Skeleton Key, Dark Water and The Amityville Horror remake.  Abduction and Killer Elite both fell farther with Abduction going from fourth to seventh and Killer Elite from fifth to ninth.  The only other major box office news was What’s Your Number? which had the fifth worse opening for a movie on over 3,000 theaters with $5.4 million.  It’s opening was barely a third of the opening of the completely forgettable Anna Faris movie “The House Bunny”.

Not even Brad Pitt in handsome mode could topple The Lion King, continuing it’s dominating comeback with another $21.9 million and, not surprisingly, getting extended for at least another week in theaters by Disney.  Moneyball had a solid second place showing with $19.5 million, making it the second best baseball movie opening and seventh best opening for a sports movie in general.  Dolphin Tale took third place with $19.1 million.  The two battling action movies rounded out the top 5 and, unfortunately, Abduction managed to edge out Killer Elite.  Abduction made $10.9 million while Killer Elite made $9.4 million.  Abduction was definitely helped by the fact that it was PG-13 compared to Killer Elite’s R and that it got a boost from the brain dead “Team Jacob” tweens as 68% of the audience for Abduction was apparently female.  Last week’s 2-7 all slid down four places to accommodate the new arrivals.  This weekend isn’t particularly strong so I wouldn’t be surprised to see The Lion King stay on top for another week.